Thierry Frétey

Association RACINE

This paper presents the analysis of three works by three authors (Linnaeus, Vandellius and Kalm) published in 1761 that contain classifications of amphibians and reptiles. The nomenclatural status of the herpetological nomina in these works, particularly regarding their availability and taxonomic allocation, is clarified.

This paper presents the analysis of three works by three authors (Brisson, Hasselquist and Vogel) published in 1762 that contain classifications of amphibians and reptiles. The nomenclatural status of the herpetological nomina in these works, particularly regarding their availability and taxonomic allocation, is clarified.

This paper presents the analysis of two works by three authors (Klein, Arnault de Nobleville & Salerne), and a translator and adaptator (Behn), published in 1760, that contain classifications of amphibians and reptiles. The nomenclatural status of the herpetological nomina in these works, particularly regarding their availability and taxonomic allo...

We provide a catalogue of the genus-series nomina of chelonians of the world, including all (343) extant and extinct genera or subgenera since the Holocene (present geological epoch, beginning about 12,000 years ago), currently recognized as valid (107) or not (236). In order to solve some nomenclatural cases, we had to resort to 29 Articles of the...

We provide a catalogue of the genus-series nomina of chelonians of the world, including all (343) extant and extinct genera or subgenera since the Holocene (present geological epoch, beginning about 12,000 years ago), currently recognized as valid (107) or not (236). In order to solve some nomenclatural cases, we had to resort to 29 Articles of the...

We show that the new nomen "Ovophis malhotrae" proposed by Zeng et al. (2023a-b) is nomenclaturally unavailable. As we consider the species for which it was coined taxonomically valid, we propose for it a new nomen, satisfying the criteria of publication of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The original description of this species...

In a recent publication, Dubois et al. (2024) reviewed in detail the type material of Boa murina Linnaeus, 158, now known as Eunectes murinus, and designated a specimen figured in Seba (135), that is considered lost, as its lectotype. Here we explore the known details of the relevant dispersal routes for Seba's Eunectes specimens and discuss the pr...

A recent paper proposing taxonomic changes in the South American snake genus Eunectes Wagler, 1830 (anacondas) is analysed. This paper raises an unusually high number of taxonomic and nomenclatural problems. The work does not rely on an explicit species concept, the analysis of the molecular data based on three mitochondrial genes is shown to be un...

Jean-Louis Amiet died on 6 June 2023. After a few personal anecdotes, I present a summary of his biography, the batrachological taxa he described, and the amphibian and reptile taxa dedicated to him. His batrachological publications are listed in chronological order and the publication dates are indicated. His work on the Anuran Amphibians of Camer...

Le numéro 09 d’HERP me! consacré à l’herpétofaune de la Guadeloupe vient clore le projet CLEF porté par la Société Herpétologique de France – SHF et grâce à des fonds de l’Office français de la biodiversité. À travers une clé de détermination illustrée et des cartes de répartition, il permet d’offrir une vision actualisée de l’état de conservation...

The nomenclatural status of the nomina Agama cristata and Corytophanes (Squamata, Corytophanidae) are examined. The former should be credited to Merrem (1819), not Merrem (1820), and the latter to Schlegel (1826a), not H. Boie in Schlegel (1826b). The nomen Iguana superciliosa Latreille in Sonnini & Latreille, 1801 is shown to be a senior synonym o...

The present paper presents the etymologies, definitions and bibliographic references of the technical nomenclatural and other terms used in the LTH series of papers, as well as their equivalent terms used for the same concepts in the Code in the rather rare cases when they exist.

This paper presents the analysis of the single work published in 1759 that contains classifications of amphibians and reptiles, by Linnaeus. The nomenclatural status of the herpetological nomina in this work, particularly regarding their availability and taxonomic allocation, is clarified.

This paper is the first of a series devoted to the analysis of the early classifications of amphibians and reptiles published from 1758 onwards, and of the nomenclatural status of all the nomina of herpetological taxa established in these works. In this introductory paper, we present the new methodology and the terminology used for these analyses,...

This paper presents the analysis of six works by five authors (Linnaeus, Borlase, Gesnerus, Roesel von Rosenhof and Vogel) published in 1758 that contain classifications of amphibians and reptiles. The nomenclatural status of the herpetological nomina in these works, particularly regarding their availability and taxonomic allocation, is clarified.

We provide a catalogue of 41 genus substantives and 110 species or subspecies epithets of amphibians and reptiles of the French Antilles, with presentation of some nomenclatural consequences that result from our observations, especially for Dryophytes squirella, Iguana rhinolophus, Pholidoscelis cineraceus and Pholidoscelis plei analifer. In order...

Ce numéro 08 de la revue HERP me ! est l’un des quatre articles d’une série dédiée à l’herpétofaune des Antilles françaises. À travers une clé de détermination illustrée et des cartes de répartition, il permet d’offrir une vision actualisée de l’état de conservation de la faune de Saint-Martin. Une bibliographie très complète est également présenté...

In September 2012, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature was amended in order to allow the online publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts, provided some conditions are respected. One of them is that such electronic publications be pre- and postregistered in the database Zoobank, and that this registration be mentioned in their...

The publication dates of the printed issues of the Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France from 1876 to 2015 (volumes 1–139) were searched. Of the 3953 new nomina published, no less than 1224 (31 %) appeared after the ostensible year of the volume. Information on the issues, their pagination, publication dates, as well as the new nomina contain...

Amphibians and Reptiles of Martinique: identification, distribution and bibliography.

Amphibians and Reptiles of Saint-Barthélemy: identification, distribution and bibliography

Maran, J. & Frétey, T. (2023) Les tortues terrestres et d'eau douce, autochtones et introduites, de France métropolitaine: état des connaissances et clé de détermination illustrée. Herp me!, 5: 1-172 ___________________________________________________________________________ Cette publication donne tous les éléments nécessaires à l'identification d...

This sixth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to the result of the enquiry launched by this Committee in 2021 about the status of new nomina and nomenclatural acts published so far on CD-ROMs. After a discussion of some problems of interpretation raised by Articles 8.4.2, 8.1.2 and 9.12 of the Code, we provide information...

The nomen of the family Dermochelyidae, with currently a single extant species, Dermochelys coriacea (Vandellius, 1761), has been attributed to different authors. This situation led us to research the sources and information about the various nomina (families, genera and species) concerned in order to review their status, in compliance of the Code,...

The history of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the giant Eurasian salamanders of the genus Andrias is provided, with a complete list of available nomina of all extinct and extant species, indicating their current nomenclatural status, their type-specimens and type-localities.

La liste taxinomique de référence est établie pour les Amphibiens de Guyane française, collectivité territoriale d' outre-mer en Amérique du Sud. Elle tient compte des publications les plus récentes sur l'herpétofaune de la région. À côté du nom scientifique zoologique international, un nom scientifique français est attribué à chaque taxon. Mots-cl...

Une nouvelle liste taxinomique de référence est établie pour les Amphibiens et les « Reptiles » de la Tunisie. À côté du nom scientifique zoologique international, un nom scientifique français est joint à chaque taxon. L'herpétofaune tunisienne compte actuellement sept espèces d' Amphibiens et 62 de « Reptiles ». Mots-clés : Amphibiens, noms scient...

A new taxonomic checklist is established for the Amphibians and “Reptiles” of Tunisia. Inaddition to international zoological scientific names, a French scientific name is attributed to each taxon. The Tunisian herpetofauna presently contains seven species of Amphibians and 62 of “Reptiles”.

This fourth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published on paper, concerning their dates, material and administrative parameters of publication, and various other matters. It proposes a few chang...

This fifth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code, published in 2012, regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published online and registered on the database Zoobank. It points to various deficiencies in these Rules and in the conception an...

This fourth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published on paper, concerning their dates, material and administrative parameters of publication, and various other matters. It proposes a few chang...

This third report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee provides comments and proposals regarding the concepts, terminology and Rules used to establish the nomenclatural availability of publications, whatever their support and mode of distribution (on paper, on discs or electronic).

This second report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a careful analysis of the concept of nomenclatural availability in zoological nomenclature, a concept often misunderstood and misused in recent taxonomic publications. It provides a definition of this expression and establishes a new nomenclatural principle, the Principle...

Summary-Taxonomic list of the herpetofauna in the Overseas France: VI Department of La Réunion. We present an updated taxonomic checklist of the Amphibians and "Reptiles" of the French department of Reunion Island located in the Mascarene archipelago, southwestern Indian Ocean. We synthesized information from the most recent publications. In additi...

Comparative studies of mortality in the wild are necessary to understand the evolution of aging; yet, ectothermic tetrapods are underrepresented in this comparative landscape, despite their suitability for testing evolutionary hypotheses. We present a study of aging rates and longevity across wild tetrapod ectotherms, using data from 107 population...

In 1847, Dufour proposed the nomen Salamandra tuberculata, a senior synonym of Hemitriton asper, for the taxon currently recognized as Calotriton asper (Dugès, 1852). In order to sustain stability, the predominant usage should be maintained. We present here the conditions required by article 23.9 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature...

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis (Sonnini & Latreille, 1801b) was long considered the only species of the genus Cryptobranchus Leuckart, 1821. In this genus, Sabatino & Routman (2009) found eight genetic independent unities isolated from each other, which they treated as Management Units. Later, Hime (2017) recovered five strongly supported species-lev...

Significance Using long-term demographic studies, we showed that warmer temperatures are associated with increased senescence rates and decreased lifespans in four amphibian species that are widely distributed across two continents (North America and Europe). Our study highlights the role of changing climatic conditions in the aging of ectotherms i...

According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and 2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...

According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and 2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...

According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and 2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...

The ‘suppression’ (invalidation) for nomenclatural purposes by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature of the work Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes Ovipares et des Serpens first published by La Cepède from 1788 to 1790 brought no benefit of any kind to zoological taxonomy and nomenclature but generated several nomenclatural proble...

The ‘suppression’ (invalidation) for nomenclatural purposes by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature of the work Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes Ovipares et des Serpens first published by La Cepède from 1788 to 1790 brought no benefit of any kind to zoological taxonomy and nomenclature but generated several nomenclatural proble...

La liste taxinomique est actualisée pour les Amphibiens et les « Reptiles » de la Guadeloupe, département et région d' outre-mer dans les Petites Antilles. Elle tient compte des publications les plus récentes. À côté du nom scientifique zoologique international, nous attribuons un nom scientifique français à chaque taxon. Summary: Taxonomic list of...

The publication date, availability and onymotope of the nomen Scincus cyanurus are assessed. The nomen was validly published by Lesson in 1830 and is based on a holophoront, probably from the island of Tahiti. Elements allowing the identification of the nomina cited in the synonymy of Scincus cyanurus are given. Eumeces lessonii Duméril & Bibron, 1...

A taxon, traditionally referred to the rank order, encompassing all recent taxa of caecilians and their close fossil relatives, is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent cladistic analyses of Amphibia. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among 12 nomina available in the literature, only one, Gymnophiona Rafinesque, 1814, qualifi...

About Authorship and date of the genus Typhlops and the family Typhlopidae.

The nomenclatural status of 17 class-series nomina (13 diplorhizonyms and 4 haplorhizonyms), based on the single or primary stems Anura, Urodela and Batrachia that had been set aside in our previous papers of this series is examined. None of them is currently valid under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, four of them are unavailable (includ...

Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, the valid nomen of the class including all recent amphibians and all the Palaeozoic groups of anamniote tetrapods subsequent to the ‘lissamphibian-amniote phylogenetic split’ is the sozodiaphonym Amphibia Blainville, 1816. This corresponds to the usage that has been in force for two centuries in thous...

A taxon encompassing all recent taxa of amphibians and their close fossil relatives is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent phylogenetic analyses of amphibians. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among twenty nomina available for this taxon, only one, Lissamphibia Gadow, 1898, qualifies as a sozodiaphonym and appears to be th...

Virgotyphlops nomenclaturally unavailable.

Bungarus romulusi nomenclaturally unavailable

A taxon, traditionally referred to the rank order, encompassing all recent taxa of frogs and their close fossil relatives, is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent phylogenetic analyses of Amphibia. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among more than thirty nomina available for this taxon in the literature, two only qualify as...

A taxon, traditionally referred to the rank order, encompassing all recent taxa of salamanders and their close fossil relatives, is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent phylogenetic analyses of amphibians. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among about thirty nomina available for this taxon in the literature, two only qualify...

The nomen Batrachia has been very extensively used in the scientific literature since 1800, but for two different taxa of recent amphibians. The first one, originally introduced by Brongniart (1800), corresponds to a taxon encompassing all recent taxa of frogs and salamanders but excluding the caecilians. The second one, used first by Oppel (1811),...

A taxon, traditionally referred to the rank order, encompassing all recent taxa of frogs and their close fossil relatives, is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent phylogenetic analyses of Amphibia. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among more than thirty nomina available for this taxon in the literature, two only qualify as...

We offer a review of the correct way of writing the names of authors with a patronymic particle in scientific papers, bibliographic lists and indexes.

This work introduces a series of papers devoted to the ascertainment of the valid nomina, under the revised Duplostensional Nomenclatural System (DONS-2), of the highest taxa (from the rank order to the rank class) of recent amphibians and ‘reptiles’. The main general features of the DONS approach to class-series nomenclature (above the rank superf...

La liste taxinomique de référence est établie pour les Amphibiens et les Sauropsides non aviens (= « Reptiles ») de Mayotte, département français et région d'outre-mer dans l'océan Indien. Elle tient compte des publications les plus récentes sur l'herpétofaune de la région. À côté du nom scientifique zoologique, un nom scientifique français est joi...

La France, à travers ses territoires ultramarins, porte la responsabilité de la conservation d'une herpétofaune incroyablement diversifiée, avec notamment des représentants des principales lignées de Squamates. Son domaine couvre plusieurs écorégions qui s'étendent des archipels de l'Océan Pacifique, aux îles de l'Océan Indien et de la Caraïbe. C'e...

In July 2014, the international meeting ‘Burning questions and problems of zoological nomenclature’ was held in Linz (Austria). It acknowledged the presence in the current International Code of Zoological Nomenclature of a number of severe problems, and accordingly decided the creation of a new international body, the Linz Zoocode Committee (LZC),...

Starting from a finding concerning a few specific nomina proposed by Linnaeus (1758, 1760) and Linné (1766–1767) in herpetology, we returned to the ‘rules of nomenclature’ followed, more or less explicitly, in taxonomic works of the 18th century, in an attempt to understand the status of capitalised epithets. We conclude that such epithets were vie...

In the scientific literature, the availability, authorship, date and onomatophore of the four generic nomina of lizards "Platydactyles", "Hemidactyles", "Thecadactyles" and Ptyodactyles" published by Cuvier (1816) and of the genus nomen of toads "Otilophes" published by Cuvier (1829) as French scientific nomina in the plural, and of their latinised...

In two distinct works published in 1877, Cope described three fossil genera of vertebrates, Hedronchus, Hemitrypus and Scapherpeton, which are now considered to be based on a single species of urodelan amphibian. The respective dates of publications of these works require to adopt Hedronchus sternbergii as the valid nomen of this taxon, which is no...

En 2011, lors de la parution de l'ouvrage francophone "Amphibiens d'Afrique centrale et d'Angola" (Frétey et al. 2011), 88 espèces d'Amphibiens étaient connues du Gabon. Ces dernières années, plusieurs équipes de chercheurs et de naturalistes ont mené des inventaires et des études sur le territoire gabonais : leurs contributions respectives portent...

La Guyane présente une riche communauté de tortues continentales (12 espèces), composée de onze espèces indigènes et d’une espèce introduite. À cette liste, il convient d’ajouter les tortues marines (5 espèces) qui fréquentent les eaux côtières du Plateau des Guyanes et viennent pondre saisonnièrement sur les plages guyanaises. En 2017, l’édition...

A precise terminology is proposed for the distinction between different categories of onymotopes (type localities) in zoological nomenclature. To illustrate these new terms, we give concrete examples taken from nomina of African amphibians. In the course of working on these examples, we are led to designate a lectophoront (lectotype) for the frog s...

The new genus-series nomen Relictus, proposed by Sá et al. (2018) for a subgenus of the frog genus Chiasmocleis Méhelÿ, 1904, is unavailable for having been proposed [1] in a paper published online unregistered in Zoobank and [2] without a diagnosis stating in words characters purported to differentiate the taxon. Finally, it is also invalid for be...

During nineteenth century, the early descriptions of amphibians often have very imprecise onymotopes (type localities). We have investigated such descriptions for Gabon. We provide some historical informations about the collectors of the specimens and we refine the places of collections.

Une mission naturaliste pluridisciplinaire a été organisée par la société Biotope, du 07 au 12 octobre 2017, dans le secteur ouest du site Ramsar des Monts Birougou (Province de la Ngounié, Gabon). L’objectif était de récolter des données naturalistes préliminaires (Amphibiens, Reptiles, Poissons, Oiseaux et Mammifères) afin de compléter les connai...

Une mission naturaliste pluridisciplinaire a été organisée par la Fondation Biotope pour la biodiversité du 26 février au 07 mars 2017 dans le massif du Koumouna-Bouali, au sud-ouest de la ville de Fougamou (Gabon, Province de la Ngounié). L’objectif était d’évaluer l’accessibilité du site et de récolter des données naturalistes préliminaires (Amph...

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...

This plot is not part of the published stance but derives from it. The plot shows the number of authors by geographic region (courtesy of Dr. Diego Astua).

From 1985 to 1994, Luuc Bauer published 31 new amphibian nomina for taxa at various ranks, including 14 genera. The nomenclatural status of these nomina regarding their availability and validity is evaluated here: 15 of them are considered available, including four or five valid ones according to the classification chosen (one for a species and thr...

Suite à trois séjours naturalistes à Rodrigues en 2009, 2011 et 2012, l’association RACINE (TF) a entrepris une synthèse bibliographique afin d’établir une liste actualisée de l’herpétofaune de l’île de Rodrigues. Avec les espèces introduites plus ou moins récemment et les espèces éteintes, la liste des Reptiles de Rodrigues atteint 25 espèces. En...

Various nomenclatural errors in a recent revision of the frog family PELODRYADIDAE are corrected, including the necessary change of nomina for a subfamily and a genus.

Field work was conducted in 2008 and 2009 in Nhica do Rovuma, Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique, in order to assess anuran faunal composition of East African coastal dry forest. A total of 31 species were observed and/or collected; 24 of these are new for the province. Discussions on nomenclatural and taxonomic aspects are given for Leptopelis br...

Two amphibian species from China are designated by the specific nomen shuichengensis, which refers to the Shuicheng County (26°34'N, 104°51'E), south of the city of Liupanshui in the province of Guizhou: Megophrys shuichengensis (Amphibia, Anura) and Pseudohynobius shuichengensis (Amphibia, Urodela). The holotypes (holophoronts) of both species wer...

The purpose of this application, under Article 81 of the Code, is to conserve the name dicroglossidae Dubois, 1987 for a family of frogs. Analysis of the publication where the name dicroglossidae was first used (Anderson, 1871) showed that this was an incorrect subsequent spelling of discoglossidae Günther, 1858 and therefore not an available name....

After recalling some features of Rodrigues, its tortoises and its large lizards, this paper presents a brief biography of Philibert Marragon, the first administrator and governor who took up residence on the island. We then reproduce and translate the full text of a report written by Marragon in 1795 which describes, in a more or less detailed way,...

The nomenclatural status of the nomen Hyperolius guttatus Peters, 1875 was investigated. The specimens on which the original description was based were collected at Bootry in Ghana and in Cameroon, but their precise collection localities are unknown. We established the chronology of the successive taxonomic allocations of the specimens from Ghana a...

Dans les années 1970, la Bretagne a été l'objet de remembrements généralisés sur l'immense majorité de ses communes. Certes, personne ne peut nier que la région avait besoin d'évoluer, et que, notamment, beaucoup de parcelles utili-sées par l'agriculture étaient trop étroites et ne permettaient pas le maniement cor-rect des engins agricoles moderne...

Si dans le passé ce genre de travaux se faisait sans aucun égard pour la faune, il faut reconnaître que, depuis une bonne vingtaine d'années, ils se font toujours en concertation. Ainsi avons-nous été consul-tés à maintes reprises par les services de la DRE (Direction Régionale de l'Équipe-ment) et des DDE (Direction Départe -mentale de l'Équipemen...

In zoological nomenclature, to be potentially valid, nomenclatural novelties (i.e., new nomina and nomenclatural acts) need first to be made available, that is, published in works qualifying as publications as defined by the International Code of zoological Nomenclature (“the Code”). In September 2012, the Code was amended in order to allow the rec...

For a long time, and although the two genera are not closely allied, generic allocation of the species of the genera Arthroleptis (Anura, Brevi-cipitidae, Arthroleptinae) and Phrynobatrachus (Anura, Ranidae, Phryno-batrachinae) was found difficult by zoologists. However, Laurent (1941) had pointed to criteria allowing this allocation, bearing on th...

The precise origin of the specimens described by Ahl (1925) as three new species is shown to be Bouala in République centrafricaine.

INEICH I., FRETEY T., COLYN M. & BARRIÈRE P., 2007 - Geographic Distribution - Serpentes. Gonionotophis brussauxi (Mocquard's Lesser File Snake). Central African Republic. Herpetological Review, 38(1): 104.