Anhydrophryne rattrayi Hewitt 1919

Conradie, Werner, Branch, William R. & Watson, Gillian, 2015, Type specimens in the Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa, including the historically important Albany Museum collection. Part 1: Amphibians, Zootaxa 3936 (1) : -

Anhydrophryne rattrayi Hewitt 1919

Records of the Albany Museum, 3(3): 182–189; Pl. V.

Lectotype: PEM A6334 (formerly AMG 4044); Hogsback, Amatola Range, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa; G. Rattray and J. Wood, ‘ January 1919 ’.

Paralectotype: PEM A7463 (AMG number no longer available; probably the same as the lectotype); same details as lectotype.

Remarks. The type description mentions a series (number unspecified) of zoological specimens, including the A. rattrayi specimens, presented to the AMG by Rattray, which he and Wood collected during the summer holidays of December 1918 to January 1919. A total of four AMG series (AMG 4044, 4365, 7003, 8917) comprising 38 specimens of A. rattrayi , all collected by Rattray from the Hogsback area, are currently represented in the PEM collection. The type description makes specific reference to an adult female (see p. 184, 187, 188), a sub-adult female (see p. 187), and a single metamorph. Ventral and dorsal photographs are provided of the adult female and a dorsal photograph of the sub-adult female (Pl. V), while a line drawing is provided for the metamorph (see p. 185). We have with confidence assigned PEM A6334 to the adult female listed in the type description, as it is the only adult female in the series with the same snout-vent length of 23 mm, and fits the illustration in limb position and general morphology, as well as having ventral patterning that resembles that in the accompanying photograph. Our assignment is further supported in that Hewitt described the detailed structure of the sacral diapophyses, which would have required dissection of the adult specimen. This is evident in incisions in the ventral skin and musculature of the specimen. We thus select PEM A6334 as the lectotype, and the separate metamorph (PEM A7463) is treated as a confirmed paralectotype.

Within the type bottle, and with the same AMG 4044 number, are a series of 26 other A. rattrayi , all now present in PEM (PEM A6333, 6335, 6336, 6640, 7441–62). Based on the photograph and information in the type description, none of these specimens appear to be the sub-adult female. This specimen is therefore either missing or now deformed, and thus indistinguishable from the other AMG 4044 specimens. All of these specimens were present in the ‘ type bottle’ on its transfer to PEM, but the amount that should be included in the type series is now impossible to determine as no number in the series is given in the type description. We acknowledge that all 26 additional specimens with the label AMG 4044 could be potential cotypes, and that they may include the sub-adult female mentioned in the type description. However, we cannot confirm this and therefore defer to nominating them as additional paralectotypes. The other specimens in the ‘ type bottle’, including PEM A3830, 3969, 7420–25, 6981 and 7969 (of the AMG series 4365, 7003 and 8917) are considered subsequent additional topotypic material, and we consider them to have no nomenclatural standing.