PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India S.R. Ganesh, S. Bhupathy, P. Karthik, G. Babu Rao & S. Babu 26 June 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 9 | Pages: 16123–16135 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6036.12.9.16123-16135 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16123–16135 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6036.12.9.16123-16135 #6036 | Received 23 April 2020 | Final received 09 June 2020 | Finally accepted 16 June 2020 S h o Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the r t Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India C S.R. Ganesh 1 , S. Bhupathy 2#, P. Karthik 3 , G. Babu Rao 4 & S. Babu 5 o m m 1 Chennai Snake Park, Rajbhavan post, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600025, India. u 2,3,4,5 Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikaty, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India. n 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], i 4 5 c [email protected], [email protected] a #deceased on 29/4/2014 t i o n Abstract: We list the herpetological voucher specimens in the holdings acknowledged (Winker 2004). So much so that even of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), species extrpaton paterns and populaton declines can a wildlife research insttute in India. Most of the collectons are the fruiton of feldwork by SACON’s herpetologist and a coauthor of this be traced and deduced from such collectons (Shafer et work—late Dr. Subramanian Bhupathy (1963–2014). Taxonomically, al. 1998; Lister 2011). Faunal catalogues from under- the collecton represents 125 species, comprising 29 amphibian species belonging to eight families and 96 reptlian species belonging researched tropical countries have served as immense to 17 families. Geographically, the material in this collecton originates source of informaton on regional biodiversity (e.g., from the Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats, the Deccan Plateau, and Mahony et al. 2009 for Bangladesh’s herpetofauna). the Coromandel Coast, comprehensively covering all ecoregions of peninsular India. A total of 15 taxa (three amphibians, 12 reptles) In Indian herpetology, most of the historical remain to be fully identfed and are provisionally referred to most- informaton on species were based on specimens lodged resembling taxa, with cf. prefx. All the specimens in this collecton are in the Britsh Museum (now the Natural History Museum non-types as on date. London, UK) that were worked out by Boulenger (1882, Keywords: Amphibians, biological museum, distributon, reptles, 1885a,b, 1887, 1889, 1893, 1894, 1896) in a series of taxonomy. technical monographs. Two other important regional museums were the Indian Museum Calcuta (now Zoological Survey of India, ZSI, Kolkata) and the Bombay Natural history collectons are professional holdings Natural History Society Museum (BNHS), Mumbai. of scientfcally named and classifed voucher specimens The herpetological holdings of ZSI were worked out by of organisms or their biological samples thereof, for Theobald (1876) and Sclater (1891, 1892), while that of research and public educaton purposes (Melber & the snakes of BNHS were enumerated by Phipson (1888). Abraham 2002). Of late, their value as an enormous Later, post-Independence, Satyamurt (1967) enlisted source of data on the diversity and distributon of the amphibians of the Madras Government Museum, plants and animals have been increasingly realized and another old regional museum at Chennai, India (also see Editor: Raju Vyas, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Ganesh, S.R., S. Bhupathy, P. Karthik, G.B. Rao & S. Babu (2020). Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(9): 16123–16135. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6036.12.9.16123-16135 Copyright: © Ganesh et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We dedicate this artcle to our coauthor the late Dr. S. Bhupathy, as it was his endeavors that formed the very basis of this artcle, in entrety. We sincerely thank our respectve insttuton heads and chiefs for generously supportng our research actvites – the Director and other senior scientsts at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) and the Executve Chairman and trustees of the Chennai Snake Park Trust (CSPT). 16123 J TT Catalogue of herpetological specimens at SACON Ganesh et al. Thurston 1888). Bauer (1998) published a catalogue of collecton locality and the number of examples in most important South Asian herpetological specimens in the cases. Date or year of collectons was not to be found Zoological Museum Berlin, Germany. With regards to in most if not all jars and hence stands unknown. But the type specimens, Das & Chaturvedi (1998) prepared judging by his track records, it is deduced to be between the herpetological type catalogue for the BNHS 1986 and 2014, spanning three decades. We have museum. Das et al. (1998) published the reptlian type maintained the Insttuton acronym SACON for denotng catalogue of the Zoological Survey of India (also see Das this museum abbreviaton as well, accompanied by & Gayen 2004). Chanda et al. (2000) provided the type other sufxes V- for vertebrates, A- for amphibians, R- catalogue of amphibians in the same insttuton. Lastly, for Reptles. This is followed by the museum registraton on general holdings, Ganesh & Asokan (2010) published number that contnues sequentally, species afer the catalogue of Indian herpetofauna in the Madras species. Where more than a single specimen is in the Government Museum. same jar, alphabets are added onto their registraton The Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History numbers to diferentate them. Where appropriate, we (SACON), is one of the India’s leading insttutes dedicated also furnish comments on taxonomy, nomenclature, and for wildlife research. The insttute was inspired by and distributon of the species dealt with. Scientfc names named in honour of Sálim Ali (1896–1987), the leading and taxonomic classifcatons were updated afer recent pioneer of ornithology in India. Located in the outskirts systematc revisions for species whose labels furnished of Coimbatore City (Tamil Nadu, India), abutng the obsolete names originally. Throughout the catalogue Western Ghats, this insttute has been functoning since below, we only use the currently-valid scientfc names 1990. Being a Centre of Excellence, under the auspices and concepts of taxa (afer Frost 2020 for amphibians; of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Pyron et al. 2016, Uetz et al. 2020 for reptles). Change, Government of India (MoEFCC, GoI), SACON has teams of wildlife biologists and experts conductng Catalogue of Specimens research and teaching. One such scientst of SACON, Dr. Subramanian Amphibia Bhupathy (1963–2014) headed the Conservaton Gymnophiona Ecology Division at this insttute and with the help of Ichthyophiidae his numerous students, amassed a good collecton of 1. Sharp-tailed Caecilian Uraeotyphlus cf. oxyurus amphibian and reptlian specimens as a part of their (Duméril & Bibron, 1841) research work. His publicatons on herpetology date Material: SACON/VA-1 one from Anamalai. back to 1986 and he has been conductng feld surveys Comments: Nominotypical species is endemic to the and research throughout the country, on herpetofauna, Western Ghats (Thurston 1888). among other animal taxa. The material enumerated below is from three decades of his feldwork across Anura Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Bufonidae Pradesh, Telangana,