Bookreview I 155

BOOKREVIEW

Snakes of the World a Checkli.st, Vol. 1. Venomous . Pp. 1-135. Price£ 15.00. Vol. 2. Boas, Pythons, Shield-tails and Worm Snakes. Pp. 1-89. Price£ 12.50. By: K.R.G. Welch, 1994. Publishers: R & A Research and Information Ltd. and KCM Books, 37 Rowbarton Close, Taunton, Somerset, T A2 7DQ, England. In the Americas these titles are distributed by Eric Thiss, Serpent's Tale, 464 Second Street, Excelsior, MN 55331, U.S.A.

By: Anton van Woerkon. * * *

These books are the first two volumes of a series of three covering all living snakes of the world. The author of these books claims to list the snakes in the most up-to-date classification. The introduction in each volume is mostly covered by explaining the present status of classification followed in the book. Volume 1 dealing with proteroglyph and opisthoglyph snakes contains: Infraorder Volume 2 contains: Superfamily Colubroidea Infraorder Scolecophidia Family Atractaspididae Family Anomalepididae Family Elapidae Family Leptotyphlopidae Subfamily Calliophiinae Family Typhlopidae Subfamily Maticorinae Infraorder Alethinophidia Subfamily Elapinae Superfamily Anilioidea Subfamily Laticaudinae Family Loxocemidae Subfamily Bungarinae Family Xenopeltidae Subfamily Hydrophiinae Family Aniliidae Family Viperidae Family Uropeltidae Subfamily Azemiopinae Subfamily Cylindrophiinae Subfamily Causinae Subfamily Uropeltinae Subfamily Viperinae Superfamily Subfamily Crotalinae Family Subfamily Boinae Subfamily Family Pythonidae Superfamily Tropidophioidea Family Tropidophiidae Subfamily Ungaliophiinae Subfamily Tropidophiinae Superfamily Bolyerioidea Family Bolyeriidae Superfamily Acrochordoidea Family Acrochordidae 156 I Litteratura Serpentium, 1994, Vol. 14, Nr. 5

The main part of the books consist of a listing of and subspecies placed in the above mentioned families and subfamilies. For each the systematic position is indicated and for each species and subspecies the distribution. Because of rapid changes in systematics the left hand pages in both titles are left blank to facilitate the addition of notes. There are two reasons why I think these books are not yet complete.

1. I badly missed an index. E.g., I was looking for the present systematic position of the python Calabaria reinhardtii. I had to go through the book two times before I found it included in the boid genus , that presently seems to contain three species: - Charina bottae - the ; - Charina reinhardtii - the Calabar ground python ( or boa?); - Charina trivirgata - the . I do not want to criticize the publication of the authority whose scientific work resulted in such a severe systematic rearrangement, but I think it is a great risk immediately following the opinion of one author. I think it is better in such cases to leave the species in the original genus and make a clear note that recent work suggests that the systematic position is under discussion, and wait for the opinion of other authors, instead of creating confusion. 2. The absence of a list of synonyms for each taxa is to be considered a miss in my opinion. When you now are unable to find a certain taxa it remains unclear if it simply has been forgotten or has been placed in the synonymy of another taxa, but which one, and who did it? I hope that these two misses will be included into the next editions, because it will increase the value of the series. For now it is a handy up-to-date list of taxa that for each species and subspecies presents the distribution area. * * *

Postscript to review of Snakes of the World Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

By: Kenneth R.G. Welch, 37 Rowbarton Close, Taunton, Somerset, T A2 7DQ, England.

In writing any form of book, particularly a taxonomic listing, many ideas are considered and rejected before finishing the title. Many actions have to be defended when other arguments after publication may support their inclusion. The reviewer here has brought up two matters (index and synonyms) which I feel justify my personal comment: the intention of the series is to present what is believed to be the most up to date listing for each genus/family. Such work cannot be done by any one person without relying on the published work of herpetologists around the world. In these titles the prime reference for each taxonomic unit, most recent revision, is listed where known. Many keepers shun the use of scientific papers or journals but without recognising and using these the correct identification of their kept-species cannot be determined. Without correct identification the information they collect is of little use to anyone other than themselves. In using the most recent scientific review the synonymy of the unit is (usually) available within that review. The duplication of synonyms within these titles would increase both their size and cost. One main objection to some large professional taxonomic reviews is their cost, especially considering the very limited use to amateurs. It was felt with both these titles, Bookreview I 157

due to their limited scope that an index for either was a lengthy exercise of no real benefit. The number of genera are somewhat limited and thus the number of places for a species to 'hide' are few. With venomous snakes their taxonomic status has stabled out considerably over the years since Harding & Welch (1980) especially considering the economically priced works for example Campbell & Lamar (1989), this latter title also making synonyms of little use for Latin America. As time goes on and taxonomic classification stabilises synonyms will move towards becoming obsolete, a thing of times gone by, except for those using old titles where scientific names were not stable. I do believe that any reader using the scientific revisions listed within the pages of the titles, should not miss the long often tedious lists of synonyms. Future editions will include as part of the introduction a list of taxonomic changes from the previous edition, in itself a limited list of synonyms. With these two titles I do not feel the lack of an index as a problem due to their limited scope. With regards the specific problem listed by the reviewer, the allocation of reinhardtii, the introduction, on page 6, answers the question. The final volume on Colubrids will include an index purely because of the multitude of recent changes and the continued differences in opinion.