Lacerta scutata Linnaeus, 1758: 201

Dondorp, Esther & Denzer, Wolfgang, 2024, Annotated catalogue of acrodont lizard types in the collection of the Naturalis Biodiverstity Center (Squamata: Agamidae, Chamaeleonidae), Zootaxa 5403 (1), pp. 65-79 : 73

Lacerta scutata Linnaeus, 1758: 201

= Lyriocephalus scutatus ( Linnaeus, 1758)

Syntypes (status uncertain): RMNH.RENA.3015 , Ceylon (added later), anc.[ienne] cab.[inet[; RMNH.RENA.3062 , Ceylon, van Lidth de Jeude, 1866

Type locality: Amboina (ex errore)

Remarks: In recent literature the type is considered untraceable (see Amarasinghe et al. 2009) and an illustration in Seba (1734, Vol. 1, pl. 109, fig. 3) is treated as the iconotype, i.e. the specimen depicted constitutes the actual type. However, Denzer & Dondorp (2023a) suggested that the specimens in the Naturalis collection may have been from Seba’s collection and possibly constitute the original specimen(s), i.e. type material, on which Seba’s illustration was based. Briefly, a collector named A(e)rnout Vosmaer bought the specimen(s) at the auction of Seba’s cabinet in 1752. Vosmaer’s collection was later sold to the Dutch Princes Anne of Hanover and integrated into the Cabinet of the Stadtholder (RMNH.RENA.3015). This collection was ceased by the French in 1795, a considerable part of which was returned to the Netherlands in 1815 and may have contained this particular specimen. Alternatively, Vosmaer had been hiding part of his private collection and important items of the Stadtholder collection from the French (see also Pieters 1980). At least one specimen (RMNH.RENA.3062) from Vosmaer’s collection came later into the hands of van Lidth de Jeude. The returned items from Stadtholder collection were incorporated into the new founded Rijksmuseum (now Naturalis) in 1820 and parts of the van Lidth de Jeude collection were acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1866. A detailed report on the possible ways how the specimens ended up in the Naturalis collection was provided by Denzer & Dondorp (2023a). Lacerta scutata Linnaeus, 1758 is the type species of the genus Lyriocephalus Merrem, 1819 (see Denzer & Dondorp 2023a for details) and the type species of the genus Lophurus Fleming, 1822 ( Feuer & Smith 1972).