Telescopus dhara ( Forsskål, 1775 )

Crochet, Pierre-André, Rasmussen, Jens B., Wilms, Thomas, Geniez, Philippe, Trape, Jean-François & Böhme, Wolfgang, 2008, Systematic status and correct nomen of the western North African cat snake: Telescopus tripolitanus (Werner, 1909) (Serpentes: Colubridae), with comments on the other taxa in the dhara-obtusus group, Zootaxa 1703 (1), pp. 25-46 : 37

Telescopus dhara ( Forsskål, 1775)

Coluber dhara, Forsskål, 1775 , Descriptiones animalium, avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium, quae in itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskal; post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr: adjuncta est materia medica Kahirina atque tabula Maris Rubris geographica: 14. Name-bearing type(s): one specimen described in Forsskål (1775), holotype by monotypy, lost. Type locality: “ Yemen ”, hence probably in present-day Yemen.

Remarks on name-bearing type(s). According to Forsskål (1775), the description is based on a single specimen (“Unum tantum mihi videre licuit”) which is thus the holotype by monotypy. The type is lost: most of the material from Forsskål’s travel has been lost during the return journey; a few specimens (mostly dry fishes) are still kept in the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen but no snake (M. Andersen, pers. com.).