On an Alopoglossus from Surinam

Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden With one textfigure A single Alopoglossus was taken by Dr. K. M. Hulk during the Corantine Expedition in Surinam. It is described in the present paper as a distinct subspecies of Alopoglossus copii Blgr. Peracca (1894, p. 3) showed that in the type of Pantodactylus borellii (= P. schreibersii (Wiegm.)) the tongue is partly covered by imbricate papillae and partly by oblique plicae. He further mentions (1. c., p. 4) that his observation was confirmed by Boulenger who found too that in Pantodactylus schreibersii (Wiegm.) the posterior half of the tongue may be covered with oblique plicae, while the anterior half bears imbricate papillae. Therefore, Burt & Burt (1931, p. 357) unite the genera Alopoglossus Blgr. and Pantodactylus Dum. & Bibr. However, the shape of the dorsal scales in species like Pantodactylus schreibersii (Wiegm.) is so widely different from that in Alopoglossus copii Blgr., that I cannot consider such species as congeneric. The genus Pantodactylus as recognized by Burt & Burt (1931, p. 357) certainly is a composite of three different genera, viz., Pantodactylus Dum. & Bibr., Alopoglossus Blgr., and the genus to which Pantodactylus nicefori Burt & Burt (1931, p. 360) must be referred. The latter species differs widely from the others by the presence of an occipital behind the interparietal, these two shields separating the parietals (Burt & Burt, 1931, P. 360, figs. 12, 13). Although the description (1. c.) states that the nasals are separated by the internasal, the accompanying figure 12 shows the nasals to be in contact. Without examining the specimens it is impossible to say to which genus P. nicefori must be referred, but certainly not