Wolfgang Böhme

Research Museum Alexander Koenig | ZFMK · Vertebrate Department

A subadult individual of Eutropis fasciata from West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) revealed reduced phalanges and lacking claws.

Mesalina watsonana is a species complex with a wide distribution range in Iran, some parts of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India. Recent molecular and morphological investigations detected remarkable hidden diversity among the geographical populations of the complex, more likely referring to the persistence of undescribed spec...

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 Tongan giant skink Tachygyia microlepis is generally considered as extinct. It is known only by its two holotypes hosted at Paris Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and collected about two centuries ago. In the present paper we show that this species could still exist and its biology can explain that it was not recently observed. We also high...

Mesalina watsonana is a well-known species of small lacertid lizards with an extensive species distribution that exhibits high genetic diversity. The species has a wide distribution range in Iran, some parts of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India. This study aims to generate phylogenetic and phylogeographic evidence to derive t...

We describe a large new species of leaf-tailed gecko endemic to northern Madagascar. Uroplatus garamaso sp. n. is the sister species of U. henkeli but differs by a genetic divergence > 8% in the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, by the absence of haplotype sharing in four nuclear-encoded genes analyzed, a smaller body size, slightly narrower tail, a mor...

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...

The genus Eunectes Wagler, 1830 is divided into four nominal species: E. murinus (Linnaeus, 1758), E. notaeus Cope, 1862, E. deschauenseei Dunn and Conant, 1936, and E. beniensis Dirksen, 2002 ( E. barbouri Dunn and Conant, 1936 being a synonym of E. murinus ). We analyze multivariate morphological traits (scalation, coloration pattern, and body sh...

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...

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...

The first study after the official species description of the endemic Afghanistan Mountain Salamander Paradactylodon (Afghanodon) mustersi (Smith, 1940) was published in Kabul, Afghanistan, and only in Dari Persian. We, therefore, provide here an English translation of this paper, together with so far unpublished background information on this rare...

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 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...

For almost 30 years, there have been active discussions about the taxonomic impediment and the challenge this represents to address the current human-induced biodiversity crisis. From the start (Systematics Agenda 2000, 1994), the term ‘taxonomic impediment’ has been ambiguous, designating both the insufficiency and inadequacy of the resources put...

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...

Based on genetic and morphological evidence, Senczuk et al. (2019) formally raised the Podarcis populations from the Western Pontine Islands, previously classified as several subspecies of P. siculus, to species rank, i.e. Podarcis latastei (Bedriaga, 1879). This taxonomic change was not accepted in the checklist of the European herpetofauna by Spe...

Islands are compelling natural laboratories for studying evolutionary processes. Nevertheless, the existence of general rules underlying morphological evolution on islands remains an unresolved issue. In this study, we investigated the insular phenotypic variability of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) on a large geographical scale, in ord...

Islands are compelling natural laboratories for studying evolutionary processes. Nevertheless, the existence of general rules underlying morphological evolution on islands remains an unresolved issue. In this study, we investigated the insular phenotypic variability of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) on a large geographical scale, in ord...

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...

The taxon name Lacerta varia has been independently coined four times. Such homonymy can result in nomen-clatural instability. We show that all but one name are nomina oblita. This way we protect the longstanding name Lacerta bilineata Daudin, 1802. With respect to the species epithet varia in combination with the genus name Lacerta only Lacerta va...

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...

Reproductive mode, ancestry, and climate are hypothesized to determine body size variation in reptiles but their effects have rarely been estimated simultaneously, especially at the intraspecific level. The common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) occupies almost the entire Northern Eurasia and includes viviparous and oviparous lineages, thus representing...

Based on molecular, morphological and field data, the status and zoogeography of the taxa of the Psammophis sibilans group north of 12°S are reviewed. Molecular data including sequences from 20 of the 22 described species known to occur north of 12°S suggest that P. sibilans distribution is restricted to northeastern Africa, from Egypt to Ethiopia....

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...

We present information on primary type specimens for 13,282 species and subspecies of reptiles compiled in the Reptile Database, that is, holotypes, neotypes, lectotypes, and syntypes. These represent 99.4% of all 13,361 currently recognized taxa (11,050 species and 2311 subspecies). Type specimens of 653 taxa (4.9%) are either lost or not located,...

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...

In recent years, great attention has been paid to many Podarcis species for which the observed intra-specific variability often revealed species complexes still characterized by an unresolved relationship. When compared to other species, P. siculus underwent fewer revisions and the number of species hidden within this taxon may have been, therefore...

Herein, we gathered 109 historic and current records of the endangered Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) to be able to model its potential current and future distribution by means of expert opinion and species distribution model (Maxent). Results showed that R. darwinii potential current distribution is much wider than the known one, mainly due t...

Based on morphological characteristics, two subspecies of the Transcaucasian rat snake (Zamenis hohenackeri) are currently recognized, namely Z. h. tauricus and Z. h. hohenackeri. Both subspecies are repeatedly considered to be conspecific colour morphs, or have even been confused with Z. situla. Although, few studies involved the Transcaucasian ra...

During the first decades of the last century, an enigmatic extinction was documented to have occurred on the small Mediterranean island of Santo Stefano in the Pontine Archipelago. Although islands are fascinating systems for studying microevolutionary processes, they may nevertheless host unstable communities that make their populations particular...

Islands are fascinating natural laboratory where to study speciation and evolution. Here, we investigated the variation of the head morphology of 374 individuals of Podarcis siculus from mainland Italy, Sicily and the Pontine Archipelago, using the geometric morphometric approach. We also included in the analysis samples of an extinct island popula...

During the first decades of the last century, an enigmatic extinction was documented to have occurred on the small Mediterranean island of Santo Stefano in the Pontine Archipelago. Although islands are fascinating systems for studying microevolutionary processes, they may nevertheless host unstable communities that make their populations particular...

A checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of 35 localities situated in the northern Peruvian dry forest valley of the Marañón River and its tributaries, containing 14 species of amphibians and 54 species of reptiles, is provided from data collected between July 2005 and April 2014 during several herpetological surveys and from the literature. Deta...

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...

The widely distributed viviparous lizard Zootoca vivipara (Lichtenstein 1823) revealed considerable differences in physiology, karyology, molecular genetics, and natural history. Based on chromosomal and mtDNA data several distinct karyotypic forms and haplotypes have been described from Central Europe. In an attempt to further clarify the geograph...

The widely distributed viviparous lizard Zootoca vivipara (Lichtenstein 1823) revealed considerable differences in physiology, karyology, molecular genetics, and natural history. Based on chromosomal and mtDNA data several distinct karyotypic forms and haplotypes have been described from Central Europe. In an attempt to further clarify the geograph...

Recent studies found major conflicts between traditional taxonomy and genetic differentiation of grass snakes and identified previously unknown secondary contact zones. Until now, little is known about gene flow across these contact zones. Using two mitochondrial markers and 13 microsatellite loci, we examined two contact zones. One, largely corres...

The Ibizan wall lizard, Podarcis pityusensis, was the subject of several documented translocations by the German vertebrate zoologist Martin Eisentraut, in 1930. He aimed to initiate long-term experiments into the evolution of melanism and other morphological traits and accordingly he designed introductions into five islets that (he believed) conta...

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...

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).

The savannah and tropical forest biomes of Africa have a long history of expansion and contraction, and the recent and rapid spread of dry savannah habitats has influenced the spatial and temporal diversification of vertebrate taxa across this region. We used a combination of species tree and phylogeographic methods to describe the spatio-temporal...

We here report the rediscovery of a type specimen of the Australian skink Anomalopus leuckartii (W einland , 1862) in the Museum of Zoology (Museum für Tierkunde), Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden (accession number MTKD 10205), heretofore pre- sumed lost during World War II. Eidonomic data for the specimen conform to the original s...

Über das Paarungsverhalten der Äskulapnatter (Zamenis longissimus) ist in der herpetologischen Literatur bislang nur höchst sporadisch berichtet worden. So gehen so gut wie alle Erwähnungen auf die Arbeiten von Stemmler-Morath (1935), Lotze (1975) oder Drobny (1989) zurück. Insbesondere Lotze (1975) beschreibt den Ablauf der Paarung sehr detaillier...

We analysed scale morphology and micro-structure from five different body regions using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) across all nine recognized subgenera of the monitor lizard genus Varanus including 41 different species investigated. As far as we are aware, this qualitative visual technique was applied by us for the first time to most monito...

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) is Europe's most widely distributed and, in many regions, most common snake species, with many morphologically defined subspecies. Yet, the taxonomy of grass snakes is relatively little studied and recent work has shown major conflicts between morphologically defined subspecies and phylogeographical differentiation....

Wolfgang Hartwig is a taxidermist, illustrator and animal painter who worked from 1956 to 1993 at the Museum Koenig, and who in that period considerably coined the exhibitions and the design of this institution. To mark his 88th year of birth in 2016, we illustrate his life and work. He spent his youth and apprenticeship in Thuringia but left the (...