Thore Koppetsch

Natural History Museum, Norway · Department of Research and Collections

A recent revision of the anacondas (Serpentes: Boidae: Eunectes), with the description of a new species of green anaconda, generated extensive publicity, but also provoked considerable controversy due to inadequacies of the evidence used and errors in nomenclature. We here use the case of this problematic publication to: (i) highlight common issues...

The role of interspecific hybridization has recently seen increasing attention, especially in the context of diversification dynamics. Genomic research has now made it abundantly clear that both hybridization and introgression – the exchange of genetic material through hybridization and backcrossing – are far more common than previously thought. Be...

The small arboreal frog Guibemantis liber (Anura: Mantellidae) has served as an example for the existence of deep conspecific lineages that differ by a substantial amount in mitochondrial DNA but are similar in morphology and bioacoustics and thus are assigned to the same nominal species. During fieldwork in northern Madagascar, we identified addit...

A new species of chameleon, Trioceros wolfgangboehmei sp. nov. , inhabiting the northern slopes of the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia, is described. It differs from its Ethiopian congeners by a combination of the following features: presence of a prominent dorsal crest with a low number of enlarged conical scales reaching along the anterior half of the...

Streams provide an array of habitat niches that may act as environmental filters for fish communities. The tropical island of Sulawesi in Indonesia is located in the Wallacea, a region isolated by marine barriers from the Asian and Australian faunas. Primary freshwater fishes are naturally absent in the Wallacea, including Sulawesi's numerous coast...

Among geckos, an ideal group to investigate the roles of population dynamics and ecological adaptation in species diversification are semaphore geckos of the genus Pristurus. Numerous ecologically diverse species can be found across Afro-Arabia. On the one hand, strong environmental gradients promoting ecological speciation are present; on the othe...

Mainly well-known as a widely-travelled Norwegian explorer and adventurer, Carl Sofus Lumholtz originally was a naturalist, and his collecting activities resulted in valuable additions to several natural history collections, including the Naturhistorisk museum in Oslo (NHMO), Norway. After having been sent to Australia to obtain specimens for the c...

Guggenbühl, R., Koppetsch, T., & Rosentritt, H. (2024): Unbekannte Fischvielfalt im Nordosten Madagaskars – Nachweise von Paretroplus polyactis BLEEKER, 1878 und eine erste Bestandsaufnahme der Ichthyofauna entlang der Masoala-Halbinsel. – DCG-Informationen, 55(3): 64–74.

Since the antiquity, chameleons were the subject of superstitions and fear, resulting in numerous mythological imaginations and persecution by humans. Even the origin of the seemingly Greek name “chamai-leon” of these animals was and still is under debate. Our article addresses this latter question, but concentrates on the myths connected with cham...

A bstract The role of interspecific hybridization in the context of diversification dynamics has recently seen increasing attention. Genomic research has now made it abundantly clear that both hybridization and introgression – the exchange of genetic material through hybridization – are far more common than previously thought. Moreover, even highly...

In the NHMO zoological collections, specimens from the Arctic include about 9,000 mammals and 7,100 birds, whereas the Insect Collection holds about 105,000 specimens plus more than hundred jars with unsorted material. The Fish Collection contains approximately 1,400 specimens, while the Herptile Collection (amphibians & reptiles) holds only thirty...

We here report records of hematophagic ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) on two individuals of Vipera ammodytes at the Danube’s Iron Gates in Serbia, and briefly review other known cases of ticks infesting European viperid snakes.

Some small scincid lizard jaw fragments with multicuspid teeth recovered from a heap of subrecent to subfossil owl pellets on the island of Razo, Cape Verde archipelago, are described and documented by macro photography and µ-CTimaging. They are compared with the dentition of extant members of the endemic Cape Verdean skink genus Chioninia Gray, 18...

Spawning is reported for the first time for an uncopulated female Pignose puffer Pao suvattii kept without contact to a mature male individual. Here, this phenomenon is referred to as 'solo spawning'. In addition, colour change and vocal signalling are reported for this freshwater puffer species. Citation: Koppetsch, T. (2022): Solo Spawning, Egg...

Harpesaurus tricinctus is an Asian agamid lizard described in 1851 from Java, Indonesia, and since then known only from its holotype located at the Paris Natural History Museum (MNHN-RA), supposedly a male, characterized by a long sickle-shaped rostral appendage. Ecological data are virtually lacking since no other specimen have ever been found. He...

It is the aim of the present note to describe the first case of a melanistic individual in the Nile monitor lizard, Varanus niloticus (Linné, 1766) and to briefly review all known cases, to the best of our knowledge, of melanism in varanids.

Tarentola geckos have a widespread geographic distribution and occur both in the Palearctic and Afrotropical realms, as well as the Neotropical region. Particularly, across North Africa phenotypically similar and cryptic species can be found, like the west Saharan members of the T. ephippiata complex. However, the taxonomic relationships and phylog...

Snakes have been mentioned and characterized in several Greek and Roman literary works. Here, we present a comparative investigation of texts of antique authors on snakes, according to their knowledge and beliefs of their time. The evaluation of their writings is made from a herpetological perspective and refers to the current identity of the snake...

The herpetological collection of the Naturhistorisk Museum in Oslo was particularly shaped by the collecting activities of individual Norwegian zoologists and naturalists such as Robert Collett, Carl Sofus Lumholtz and Knut Dahl. The geographic focus of the collection is on Australia, Southeast Asia (Borneo, Sumatra), Madagascar and South Africa. I...

The earless, nose-horned agamid lizard Pseudocophotis sumatrana is only represented by a few specimens in collections worldwide. We discovered a historical publication from 1855 by van der Hoeven where the species was described as Calotes nasicornis before the currently accepted original description by Hubrecht in 1879. In order to uphold nomenclat...

Here, I report on two records of the Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle Pelodiscus sinensis (Testudines: Trionychidae) near the High and Upper Rhine in Weil am Rhein, Germany, and Basel, Switzerland.

Record sizes of amphibians and reptiles are often also of popular scientific interest. In case of big-growing species, reports on exceptionally large specimens are also often spread by mass media. From the herpetological collection of the Museum Koenig some specimens were searched out which approach the maximum dimensions of their respective specie...

We report on an overlooked occurence of Pinus rotundata in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. [Citation: Böhme, W., Koppetsch, T., Fischer, E. (2021): Die Moorspirke (Pinus rotundata) - ein übersehenes Nadelbaumvorkommen in Schleswig-Holstein. - Natur- und Landeskunde - Zeitschrift für Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg und Mecklenburg 128(4-6): 135-1...

Using two examples, we report on the knowledge of snake behavior written down by antique authors already two millennia ago, and we discuss how this information can be interpreted today. The first example concerns the locomotion by sidewinding in desert-dwelling vipers, the second example is represented by the horned viper (in Greek “Kerastes”) and...

Ethiopia is known for its highly endemic and rich herpetofaunal diversity shaped by its biogeographical patterns. Here, a new species of skink, Trachylepis boehmei sp. nov., is described from the Ethiopian Highlands. It differs from its congeners in having smooth uncarinated dorsal scales, 26-29 scale rows around midbody, a slender body of small si...

We report for the first time the Giant Bluetongue Skink Tiliqua gigas (Schneider, 1801) from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. This find constitutes the westernmost record for the species and represents the first record of Tiliqua Gray, 1825 from west of the Weber Line and for Wallacea. The possible origin of the specimen found and its taxonomic s...

We describe a new record of the Tenerife wall gecko Tarentola delalandii pollinating the introduced palm species Dypsis lutescens on Tenerife on the Canary Islands.

While the morphology of the adhesive system of geckos has been investigated predominantly in a single species, the tokay Gekko gecko (Linnaeus, 1758), compared to that, there is still the need to examine those traits in a broad diversity of gecko species. Here we focus on the Asian representatives of eublepharid geckos, as a closely related group w...

We describe a new species of the Varanus indicus group (subgenus Euprepiosaurus) from the Kei Islands, Indone-sia, which differs from its close relative V. indicus by a light tongue, a conspicuous color pattern composed of distinct yellowish ocelli on a blackish ground color and by some scalation characters. From its more distantly related, but mor...

While the morphology of the adhesive system of geckos has been investigated predominantly in a single species, the tokay (Gekko gecko), there exists a lack of knowledge concerning a broad diversity of gecko species. Here we focus on the Asian representatives of eublepharid geckos, as a closely related group within Gekkota, and study ecomorphologica...

We report on a case of intrasexual cannibalism in adult females of the European praying mantis, Mantis religiosa Linnaeus, 1758. We discuss this observation under the aspect of intersexual conflicts associated with sexual cannibalism, as well as its seasonality, and we offer possible explanations for the observed case.

Based on three adult specimens, viz. two males and a female that form the type series, a new species of blind or worm-like lizards is described from Pulau (= Island) Manado Tua, a little volcanic island located off the northern tip of the Minahassa Peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dibamus manadotuaensis sp. nov. differs from all congeneric species...

We report on a new find of the black-striped field mouse, Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) from Sarród on the southern bank of Lake Neusiedl. It completes the distributional pattern in this area which was supposedly colonized only in the last two to three decades. Moreover, our new find throws new light on an old record from Nagylosz, likewise situ...

We report the first record of Hemidactylus pseudomuriceus Henle & Böhme, 2003 from the Central African Republic, that extends the known distribution range of this species considerably northeastwards. This first record of the now sixth Hemidactylus species from RCA, in total the fourth from a fourth African country, is situated about 480 km air dist...