Gymnophthalmus quadrilineatus, Merrem Plate

Vanzolini, Paulo E. & Myers, Charles W., 2015, The Herpetological Collection Of Maximilian, Prince Of Wied (1782 - 1867), With Special Reference To Brazilian Materials, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2015 (395), pp. 1-155 : 40-41

Gymnophthalmus quadrilineatus, Merrem Plate 17

1824 Isis : 664 (listed under Gymnophthalmus as ‘‘ S. ’’ quadrilineatus ’’ [lapsus]; diagnosis).

1825 Beitra¨ge: 198.

1829 Abbildungen: Lief. 13.

PRESENT STATUS: Micrablepharus maximiliani (Reinhardt and Lu¨ tken, 1862), designat- ed by Myers et al. (2011: 12) as a nomen protectum.

REMARKS: Wied had a manuscript name for this species that he never published (see below). In the Isis of 1824 he misidentified the species as ‘‘ S [cincus]. quadrilineatus ,’’ and continued the misidentification in the Beitra¨ge under the name ‘‘ Gymnophthalmus quadrilineatus Mer- r[em].’’ Wied’s reference to the Abbildungen on page 198 of the Beitra¨ge anticipated the plate that was to appear four years later. There are no specimens in the collection.

‘‘ Gymnophthalmus quadrilineatus ’’ as used by Wied is an unavailable name because Lacerta quadrilineata Linnaeus is the type species of Gymnophthalmus Merrem (1820: 74) . Based on new specimens and Wied’s unavailable name G. quadrilineatus, Reinhardt and Lu ¨ tken (1862: 211) honored Wied by naming Gymnophthalmus maximiliani . Boulenger (1885: 426) referred both G. quadrilineatus and G. maximiliani to Boettger’s (1885) recently named genus Micrablepharus , with M. maximiliani a senior synonym of the nominal type species ( M. glaucurus Boettger ).

Wied’s prior but unpublished manuscript

name for this species was Scincus cyanurus .

Myers et al. (2011: 8) noted that Wied

had a lizard not previously described.... [His] description is clear and calls attention to the bright blue tail of the species (not shown in the Abbildungen plate because the sky-blue color disappears completely in preservative fide Wied, 1825a: 203 , 204). It is the only blue-tailed lizard living in an area traveled by Wied .

Although Schinz (1822) qualified the name given to him by Wied , Scincus cyanurus Schinz went unused and is a forgotten name. It has been qualified as a nomen oblitum and a wellknown younger name ( Micrablepharus maximiliani ) qualified as a nomen protectum. This action also solved the problem of homonymy between Scincus cyanurus Schinz, 1822 , and Scincus cyanurus Lesson, 1826 ( Emoia cyanurus ), a widespread Pacific skink. (For references see Myers et al., 2011: 8, 12–13).