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Two New Death Adders (Serpentes: Elapidae: Acanthophis) from the New Guinea Region

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Two New Death Adders (Serpentes: Elapidae: Acanthophis) from the New Guinea Region Australasian Journal of Herpetology 13 Australasian Journal of Herpetology 49:13-18. Published 6 August 2020. ISSN 1836-5698 (Print) ISSN 1836-5779 (Online) Two new Death Adders (Serpentes: Elapidae: Acanthophis) from the New Guinea region. LSIDURN:LSID:ZOOBANK.ORG:PUB:C6B2980E-9CC3-4138-A910-7D8A8EBD1D01 RAYMOND T. HOSER LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:author:F9D74EB5-CFB5-49A0-8C7C-9F993B8504AE 488 Park Road, Park Orchards, Victoria, 3134, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9812 3322 Fax: 9812 3355 E-mail: snakeman (at) snakeman.com.au Received 1 May 2020, Accepted 20 July 2020, Published 6 August 2020. ABSTRACT The Death Adders, genus Acanthophis Daudin, 1803 are iconic viperine-like elapid snakes found in the Australasian region. Two new taxa within the subgenus Platyelapid Hoser, 2016 from Northern New Guinea are formally named for the first time. One species from the Bird’s Head region of West Papua (Irian Jaya) is formally named as Acanthophis oxyi sp. nov.. Another form from Kar Kar Island, Papua New Guinea is formally named Acanthophis crotalusei karkarensis subsp. nov.. Both taxa are morphologically and reproductively isolated from nearest congeners. Keywords: Herpetology; snake; death adder; elapid; Acanthophis; Platyelapid; New Guinea; Indonesia; PNG; venomous; laevis; crotalusei; barnetti; new species; oxyi; new subspecies; karkarensis. INTRODUCTION This tactic of unscientific denial of the obvious continues even in The Death Adders, genus Acanthophis Daudin, 1803 are iconic 2020 as evidenced on the website of viperine-like elapid snakes found in the Australasian region. Wüster’s good mate Peter Uetz at: I, Raymond Hoser, have been working on all aspects of the http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/ genus for more than 40 years (see for example earlier papers of species?genus=Acanthophis&species=wellsi Hoser 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984a, 1984b, 1985a, 1985b, 1985c, where Uetz has written of the Pilbara Death Adder, Acanthophis 1987). This included catching, keeping and breeding most wellsei Hoser, 1998, “Synonymy: Not listed by COGGER 2000. “ forms, inspection of most forms both live and in the entire in order to substantiate their ridiculous claim that the putative collections of this genus in most Museums in Australia and species is nothing more than a strange looking Desert Death elsewhere that hold any numbers of specimens, this including Adder Acanthophis pyrrhus Boulenger, 1898. specimens from all parts of the known range of these species. However as other scientists independent of Hoser (1998a, Hoser (1998a) published the first full genus-wide revision of the 1998b) came to the same obvious conclusions as Hoser (1998a, genus. 1998b), (e.g. Aplin and Donnellan 1989, Kuch et al. 2006), the Prior to that paper, most authors (e.g. Cogger et al. 1983) taxa formally named by Hoser (1998a, 1998b) became widely recognized just three species in the genus. accepted and the names generally used (e.g. Storr et al. 1992). Hoser (1998), extended this number to include no less than 11 So by year 2014, the relevant species appeared in all recently species and three additional subspecies for Australia and New published books (e.g. Storr et al. 2002), including by that year’s Guinea (a position tacitly agreed with by Cogger 2014 as shown end in Cogger (2014) in Hal Cogger’s most recently updated below). book covering all Australian reptiles. While a gang of criminals known as the Wolfgang Wüster gang This is a point that is deliberately ignored by the Wolfgang of thieves have spent most of the 22 years since the publication Wüster gang of thieves, who even as of year 2020, were still of Hoser (1998a) trying to tell people not to recognize the claiming on the websites they control that , “Synonymy: Not species formally named by Hoser (1998a) (as well as all other listed by COGGER 2000.”, (e.g. at http://reptile- relevant papers of Hoser, including for example Hoser (2000a, database.reptarium.cz/ 2000b, 2003 and 2004), their lies, deception and unscientific species?genus=Acanthophis&species=wellsi and numerous methods as encapsulated in their non-peer reviewed rant of duplicate and mirror sites) and refused to concede that in Wüster et al. (2001) can only hide the obvious truths for so long. Cogger’s more recent work he did in fact recognize and include Also in year 2000, under the directions and harassment of the the relevant Hoser species. Wolfgang Wüster gang, Cogger (2000), ignored the taxonomic Further papers formally naming species of Acanthophis were works of Hoser (1998a, 1998b) and in his major work on published by Hoser (2002) and Hoser (2014). Hoser (2016) also Australian reptiles pretended these species did not exist. erected a subgenus for the main New Guinea lineage of the Hoser 2020 - Australasian Journal of Herpetology 49:13-18. Available online at www.herp.net Copyright- Kotabi Publishing - All rights reserved 14 Australasian Journal of Herpetology genus. The snake is formally named as Acanthophis oxyi sp. nov.. Other papers of significance were Wells and Wellington (1985), The two new species fit within the New Guinea subgenus that named three putative species level taxa as well as Wells Platyelapid Hoser, 2016. (2002), that erected a putative genus for the Acanthophis Both taxa are both morphologically and reproductively isolated pyrrhus Boulenger, 1898 species complex. from nearest congeners. While largely agreeing with the papers of Wells (2002) and that ZOOTAXA AND THE WOLFGANG WUSTER GANG OF of Wells and Wellington (1985), my papers Hoser (1998a, 2002, THIEVES 2014 and 2016a), in summary agreed with two of their species, relegated two others to subspecies and accepted but Overuse of illegally coined names of species and self-citation by downgraded their genus-level division to that of subgenus. the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves in the online PRINO (Peer reviewed in name only) journal “Zootaxa” that they control, led to By 2013, after failing to raise enough lies and deception to that journal being blackballed by Clarivate, the company behind discourage herpetologists from accepting the validity of species the “Impact Factor”, widely used by academics to measure discovered and named by Hoser (e.g. Hoser 1998a, 1998b, credibility of scientific journals (Oransky, 2020). 2000a, 2000b, 2003, 2004 and many other papers) or the names of Wells and Wellington (1985), the Wolfgang Wüster The Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves have been at war against gang via Wolfgang Wüster himself wrote a blog in 2012, cited the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature here as Kaiser (2002b), later published as Kaiser et al. (2013). (Ride et al. 1999) for decades (see Hoser 2007). That document told their supporters and anyone else who was a Their more recent war cry manifesto known as “Kaiser et al. like-minded thief, to steal works of Hoser, Wells and several (2013)”, although in fact written by Wolfgang Wüster (see Kaiser others and to engage in the nefarious practice of taxonomic 2012a) as frequently amended (see also Kaiser 2012, 2012b, vandalism to steal these works and illegally rename the same 2013, 2014a and 2014b) and the claims within it, have been taxa in direct breach of the International Code of Zoological discredited numerous times (e.g. Cogger (2014), Dubois (2014), Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999). Dubois et al. (2019), Eipper (2013), Hoser (2007, 2009, 2012a, 2012b, 2015a-f, 2019a-b), Mutton (2014a, 2014b), Shea (2013a- As of 2020, the number of species and genera illegally renamed d), Thorpe (2013, 2014a, 2014b), Wellington (2013, 2014a, by the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves was approaching 100 2014b), Wells (2013, 2014) and sources cited therein). taxa. Of relevance to this paper is that in 2015, Wolfgang Wüster and Notwithstanding these setbacks the Wolfgang Wüster gang others in his gang, published a so-called paper in an online remain undeterred and continue to commit acts of internet PRINO (peer reviewed in name only) Journal Zootaxa that trolling, running countless fake accounts online for peddling renamed Acanthophis lancasteri Wells and Wellington, 1985 as hatred and lies, as well as engaging in overt scientific fraud, Acanthophis cryptamydros Maddock, Ellis, Doughty, Smith and property theft, assault, vandalism, money fraud, money scams, Wüster, 2015. rapes, child sex offences, trafficking of amphetamines, animal abuse and cruelty, wildlife smuggling, shooting people (yes, two As that illegally coined name is a junior synonym of the proper of the group have been convicted of this) and other serious name Acanthophis lancasteri Wells and Wellington, 1985, it is crimes (Supreme Court of Western Australia 2009, Hobbs 2010, the earlier name that must always be used (Hoser, 2016, Goodman 2019). Wellington 2016). Some members of the group have been charged and jailed for As far back as 1978 when inspecting Death Adders held at the various crimes, including for example David John Williams, Australian Museum in Sydney, I was aware that the specimens convicted and fined $7,500 for animal cruelty and wildlife from Kar Kar Island, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea were smuggling at the Cairns Magistrates Court, Damien Mark morphologically distinct from those on the nearby mainland. Harding jailed for child sex offences, Seth Pywell fined for his However the classification of Hoser (1998) made a specific point role in the shooting two people, Matthew Gatt fined $8,000 for of not considering insular island forms on the basis it was the theft of a rare snake and Andrew Browne jailed for child sex uncertain as to how long they had been separated from nearby offences, but the group ring leaders Wolfgang Wüster, Mark mainland populations. O’Shea and Wulf Schleip have managed to avoid criminal Hoser (2016b) formally named a subspecies of skink on Kar Kar sanctions to date. Island and Hoser (2019c) formally described and named Emoia Wolfgang Wüster and Mark O’Shea even post images of karkarensis Hoser, 2019 being known only from Kar Kar.
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