Cacosternum capense Hewitt 1925b

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) : -

Cacosternum capense Hewitt 1925b

Records of the Albany Museum, 3(4): 367–368; Pl. XV, Fig. 1 & 5 .

Lectotype: PEM A4963 (previously AMG 4975); Cape flats near Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa; W. Rose, 9 February 1925.

Paralectotype: PEM A4962 (previously AMG 4975); same details as the lectotype.

Remarks. Poynton (1964) and later Frost (2014) recorded the types in SAM. As with Heleophryne rosei , described in the same publication and also based on material forwarded by Rose to AMG, no indication is given in the original description of where the type specimens were deposited. It is therefore likely that the types were always present in AMG, and that Poynton (1964) and Frost (2014) were incorrect. SAM have no records of having the types of C. capense (Denise Hamerton pers. comm.), supporting this premise. Hewitt notes “ Types, two examples collected by Walter Rose on the Cape Flats near Cape Town, an adult male and a juvenile”. These types were not in a labeled type bottle when forwarded to PEM, and neither were they X-rayed along with the other AMG amphibian types. However, the PEM collection contains three specimens received from the AMG with the same collection details recorded in the type description. They do not have original AMG numbers, but had been reaccessioned (AMA 4975). The ventral markings of a juvenile in the putative AMG type specimens (PEM A4963) matches that illustrated in the type description (Pl. XV, Fig. 1 ), and to stabilise this confusion it is here designated as the lectotype of C. capense . A second specimen (PEM A4962) fits the size (25 mm) noted for the adult male in the type description, and this is thus the paralectotype. The third specimen is a smaller, damaged metamorph (PEM A4964, previously AMG 4975), that is not mentioned in the type description, but bears the same collecting details. It is not considered to form part of the type series, but may be considered topotypical additional material.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Family Pyxicephalidae I: A—Lectotype of Anhydrophryne rattrayi (PEM A 6334), B—Lectotype of Arthroleptella bicolor villiersi (PEM A 1568), C—Holotype of Arthroleptella drewesii (PEM A 2319), D—Holotype of Arthroleptella landdrosia (PEM A 7123).

FIGURE 5. Family Pyxicephalidae II: A—Holotype of Cacosternum thorini (PEM A 10091), B—Holotype of Cacosternum karooicum (PEM A 5459), C—Holotype of Poyntonia paludicola (PEM A 1600), D—Lectotype of Natalobatrachus bonebergi (PEM A 1549), E—Lectotype of Cacosternum capense (PEM A 4963).