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Issue: Vol. 5415 No. 2: 21 Feb. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-02-21
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5415.2.4
Page range: 300-308
Abstract views: 15
PDF downloaded: 1

On the status of Helicops wettsteini Amaral, 1929, a senior synonym of Hypsiscopus murphyi (SERPENTES: Homalopsidae)

Institut de Systématique; Évolution et Biodiversité (ISYEB); Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; Sorbonne Université; École Pratique des Hautes Études; Université des Antilles; CNRS; CP 30; 57 rue Cuvier; F-75005 Paris; France
Society for Southeast Asian Herpetology; Im Sand 3; D-69115 Heidelberg; Germany
Reptilia Nomenclature taxonomy synonymy Hypsiscopus South-east asia

Abstract

We redescribe the name-bearing types of Helicops wettsteini Amaral, 1929, a species described from central Costa Rica. However, while Helicops wettsteini has been considered in the literature a synonym of Hypsiscopus plumbeus (previously Enhydris plumbea), we present here morphological evidence for considering Helicops wettsteini a synonym of the recently described species Hypsiscopus murphyi Bernstein, Voris, Stuart, Phimmachak, Seateun, Sivongxay, Neang, Karns, Andrews, Osterhage, Phipps & Ruane, 2022, which hence becomes a junior subjective synonym of Hypsiscopus wettsteini (Amaral, 1929).

 

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