A survey of the Linnaean type material of Coluber berus, Coluber chersea and Coluber prester (Serpentes, Viperidae)

Abstract

Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) described three taxa that are currently in the synonymy of Vipera berus: Coluber Berus, Coluber Chersea and Coluber Prester. We survey the existing preserved specimens of Vipera berus in the collections at Uppsala University Museum of Evolution and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. We give a short account of the Linnaean collections of snakes, describe the manuscript and printed catalogues on the holdings of the two museums and present the current disposition of the Linnaean collections. We review the type status of five specimens that we located and draw conclusions based on the catalogues and literary works that Linnaeus referred to. We designate a neotype for Coluber berus and restrict the type locality to Berthåga, Uppsala, and designate lectotypes for Coluber chersea and Coluber prester and restrict the type localities to Angelstad, Småland and Småland, southern Sweden respectively.

Keywords:

• Vipera berus
• snakes
• neotype
• lectotype
• syntype
• nomenclature

Acknowledgements

We are indebted for a number of people without whose help this paper could not have been completed. Dr Sven O Kullander, Erik Åhlander, Dr Anders Silfvergrip (NRM) and Dr Mats Eriksson (UUZM) kindly helped LK during his visits to Stockholm and Uppsala and allowed the study of the specimens under their care. Dr Lars Wallin, former director of UUZM, and Erik Åhlander (NRM) kindly answered many question regarding the two collections. A part of the literature was obtained from Dr Aaron Bauer (Villanova University), Wolfgang Brunnbauer (Library of the Natural History Museum in Vienna), Gina Douglas (Library of the Linnean Society of London), Dr Colin McCarthy (Natural History Museum, London), Alexandra Roberts (Library of the Natural History Museum, London) and Maria Asp Romefors (Centre for History of Science, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm). Dr Massimo Delfino (Florence University), Dr Thomas Madsen (University of Wollongong) and Dr Colin McCarthy (Natural History Museum, London) provided additional information on old specimens in different collections. The Centre for History of Science of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm kindly allowed the reproduction of plate 6 from the 1749 October, November, December issue of Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps‐Academiens Handlingar. Alexander Westerström translated some of the Swedish texts, photographed the C. Prester specimen, and joined LK to one of his visits to UUZM and provided parts of the literature used. Dr Roy W. McDiarmid (Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, USA), Gregory Watkins‐Colwell (Peabody Museum of Natural History Yale University, New Haven, USA), David Bird (Dorset, UK), David Buttle (Norfolk, UK) and Erik Åhlander kindly commented on the manuscript. The critics, comments and proposals of the two reviewers, Dr Wolfgang Böhme (Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn) and Dr Patrick David (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris) highly improved the manuscript. The material in NRM, and parts of the literature used, housed in the main Library of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna were studied by LK during research visits financially supported by SYNTHESYS (project no. SE‐TAF 462 and AT‐TAF 566), founded by the European Community‐Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 ‘Structuring the European Research Area’ Programme.