Ithycyphus perineti, Domergue, 1986

Andreone, F., Glaw, F., Nussbaum, R. A., Raxworthy, C. J., Vences, M. & Randrianirina, J. E., 2003, The amphibians and reptiles of Nosy Be (NW Madagascar) and nearby islands: a case study of diversity and conservation of an insular fauna, Journal of Natural History 37 (17), pp. 2119-2149 : 2148

(13) Ithycyphus perineti . The locality ‘ Nosy Be ’ for I. perineti was already considered as dubious by Domergue (1987). Altogether, four Ithycyphus specimens from Nosy Be are housed at Paris; under the names either I. miniatus or I. perineti . MNHN 7631 (collected by L. Rousseau) is most probably the specimen on which Domergue’s I. perineti reference was based on. It has a faded coloration, 200 ventral scales and 145 subcaudals (last piece of tail probably amputated), and a slightly keeled state in some vertebral scales. Other specimens are MNHN 1884.588 (vertebral scales not keeled, 204 ventrals, 159 subcaudals); MNHN 1966.961 (vertebral scales not keeled, 205 ventrals, 157 subcaudals); and MNHN 1986.1367, a juvenile with a brown-greyish anterior and reddish-brown posterior part of the body, 201 ventral and 166 subcaudal scales with unkeeled vertebral scales despite a superficially keeled appearance. According to Domergue (1987), the main differences between Ithycyphus miniatus and I. perineti are the keeled vertebral and paravertebral scales in the latter. His scale counts yielded a range of 186–198 ventrals and 140–162 subcaudals in I. perineti , and 199–215 ventrals and 157–174 subcaudals in I. miniatus (see also Glaw and Vences, 1994). All the I. perineti specimens from central eastern Madagascar (from the type locality Andasibe to Masoala Peninsula) show a typical yellowish colour on the anterior part of the body, while I. miniatus typically has a greyishbrown forebody. Available specimens from Nosy Be largely agree with I. miniatus in scale counts and coloration, and there is no convincing argument not to consider them as belonging to that species.