Book Reviews 313

Harding, Keith R., Welch, Kenneth R. G.: Venomous Snakes of the World. A Checklist. - Toxicon, Suppl. 1 ( 1980), X + 188 pp. Pergamon Press (Oxford, N ew York, Toronto, Syd- ney, Paris, Frankfurt). ISBN 0-08-025495-0.

20 years have passed since the last checklist of the world's venomous snakes appeared (K LEMMER1963). Since then, the best publication on the subject was a USNavy handbook (M I NTON,D OWLRUSSELL, ING& 1970)-yet it didnot give exact taxonomical information. Now HARDING & WELCHtook over thhemerito- rious and responsible task to compile the puzzle of recent regional publications into an up-to-date checklist. The reviewer thinksthat a particularlyhigh standard should be required of such a compiling work,due to the medical-toxicologicalimportance of the venomous snakes. "Standard works" like this one are commonlyused by medical practitioners, toxicologistsand antivenom producers as sole taxonomicalba- sis of their work (The book under discussion was already used as such by MEBS& KORNALIK,1982). However,a critical reading reveals strange things already in the foreword:The authors of this "simple and cooncise guide to present nomenclature and distribution" frankly admit that they did not even read their predecessor,KLEMMER'S checklist! The revieweris sorry to admit that this first negativeimpression was not disproved during the further reading of the work. The book consists of two parts. In part I the speciesand subspeciesof the Elapids, Hydrophiids,Vipe- rids and Crotalids, as well as the potentially dangerous Colubrids, are listed. The bibliographicaldata of the original descrription, the typelocality andthe distribution are indicatedfor eachsnake. Synonyms are not given; thus decreasingthe value considerably.Part II contains species lists of everysingle land in the world- a very valuable work,had it been carried out carefully.Checking the data onthe venomoussnakes of Africanorth of the equator and of the Near and Middle East, the taxonomy and distribution of which the reviewer believes to know to a sufficient degree - the followingshortcomings were noted': 1. The taxoonomicstate ofknowledge is-at least concerningthe non-anglophoneliterature- of the year 1969.More recently described species and subspecies are lacking,such as 6'chis carinatus astolae MER- TENS,1970, E.'leucogaster ROMAN, 1972, Viperaursinii anatolica EISELT BARAN,1970, Bilis parviocula B6HME,1977. Few long-knowntaxa were also overlooked,e. g. Vipera ursinii ebneriK NOEPFFLER& SOCHU- REK,1955. 2. Apart from the poorly revised primary literature, it seems that a number of important regional check- lists were also omitted. The most important are: ARNOLD& GALLAGHER1977(Oman), CORKILL 1932 CORKILL&COCHRANE 1965 and CASPERETTI1973 (Arabian Peninsula), MERTENS1969 (Paklst8n), PAPENFUSS1969 (Niger,Mali, Upper Volta),PERRET 1961 (Cameroun), Roux-EsTEVE1965 (Central Afri- can Republic). 3. As a consequence, the regional lists of H. & W. lack many species mentioned in the literature: Turkey: Viperaammodytes transcaucasiana; Iran: N. naja oxiana, Viperaraddei, Agkistrodonintermedius caucasicus (only mentioned in part 1); Afghanistan: Agkistrodonspp.; Pakistan: N. naja oxiana, as well as no less than six species of sea-snakes; Oman: C. cerastes,Atractaspis microlepidotaandersoni, Naja haje arabica, Bitis arietans, Echis colorarus, Pseudocerastespersicus; United Arab Emirates: C. cerastesgasperettii, though the type locality of this subspecies is Abu Dhabi! This wide-rangingdesert snake is equally left out of the lists of Yemenand South Yemen, but it is cited from Lebanon, where it certainly does not occur (see below); Saudi-Arabia:Atractaspis microlepidotaandersonii; Iraq :all sea snakes; Sudan: C. cerastes; Central AfricanRepublic: Boulengerina annulata, Atractaspisirregulari.s, A. reticulata,Causus lichtensteini, Atheris squamiger,Bitis nasicornis; Cameroun: Naja nigricollis,Bitis gabonica; Upper Volta:Naja (mossambica)katiensis, Atractaspis dahomeyensis, A. microlepidota,Echis spp. ( though the type locality of Echis orellatus is in Upper Volta'); Ghana: Naja haje; Senegal: Dendroaspispolylepis; etc.

1 Only facts known from the literature till 1978are incorporated in this review. 314

The opisthoglyphcolubrids Thelotornis kirtlandi andDispholidus typus areparticularly neglected: They were "forgotten" in many African countries. 4. Only insufficient knowledge of the systematics and ecology of many species, resp. of the political boundaries of several countries could have led the authors to the following wrong reports: - from Israel C. erastesgasperettii (correct:C. c. cerastes),as well as Viperalebetina obtusa died out in Is- rael decades ago, according to MENDELSSOHN1963, who is cited by H. & W.), and V.bornmuelleri known from Mt. Hermon; this mountain has been occupied by Israel, yet it is lying on Syrian territory); - from Jordan V.bornmuelleri (which they do not record from Syria). - from Egypt H. & W. cite Naja nigricollisas well as N. mossambica pallida.Apparently they are unaware of the fact that both names refer to one and the same species of spitting cobras (B ROADLEY,1968) - The Echis carinatus-complex,which has an enormous medical importance, isdeaalt with very reckless- ly.While E.ocellatus is mentioned in part I as West African subspeciesofE. carinatus, it appearsin partII oonly in about half of thelists of the countries concerned, whereas for the other half theNorth African E. carinatus pyramidumis cited. For Upper Volta,however, no Echis is listedat all, though ROMAN(1973) who showedthat bothE. leucogasterand E.ocellatus occur inthat country, iscited in the bibliography.E. carina- tus is pretended to occur inTurkey. This is totally unjustifiedand, of course,not supported by the authors MERTENSand STEWARD,whom H. & W. quote as a referencefor theirTurkey list.E. c. pyramidumis wrong- ly indicated for Iran and Afghanistan (correct; E..c. sochureki)etc. - Two little countries experience a miraculous increase in their herpetofaunas through H. & W.: Leba- non and Kuwait.The former, which is situated entirely in the mediterranean climaticzone, receivesa long species list including desert snakes such as C. cerastes,C. vipera,Echis coloratus,Pseudocerastes persicus fieldi, Walterinnesiaaegyptis, and Atractaspis engaddensis.For the latter, Echis carinatus pyramidumand Pseudocerastes p.persicus arelisted among others. None of these records has any justification.As the only reference, H. &W. give in both cases the saaid USNavy handbook. Looking intothis, one findson p. 106a table of venomoussnake distribution, inwhich I sraeland Lebanon, as wellas Iraqand Kuwait,are combi- ned within a single column, respectively.However, inthe column "Israel& Lebanon", DOWELING, MINION & R USSELLunmistakably indicate that the distribution of the above-mentionedspecies isrestricted to the south of the region (i. e. Israel). Ignoringthis, H. & W. give the same species list for each Israel and Leba- non, separately. Uncritical and negligent assumptions of this kind may be responsible for many unjustified data in the book. The US Navyhandbook is quoted as the mainreference for many Africancountries. Thus countries for which snake lists have never been published, e. g. Benin, suddenly have a list ofa dozen species ofve- nomous snakes. Less records would have been much better than questionable ones. The apprehension seems justified that gross negligencesof the above-mentioned kinds are not only confined to the sample test checked in this review,but could be found throughout the book. It is realized with disappointment that the value of the book becomes very questionble by the fact that, in practice,no information can be adopted froom it without verificationin the original literature.Part II, in particular,is useless in its present form, as it contains a puzzle of provedand unproved or wrong information, whereas on the other hand important records are left out. Part I does not go substantially beyond KLEMMER'S checklist. A chance was given away.

Literature cited

ARNOLD,E. N., GALLAGHER,M. D. (1977):Reptiles and Amphibians from the mountain of northern Oman, with special reference to the Jebel Akhdar region. J. Oman Stud., Spec. Rep. 1: 59-80. BROADLEY,D. G. ( 1968):A reviewof the Africancobras of the genus Naja (Serpentes: Eelapidae).Arnol- dia (Salisbury) 29 (3): 1-15. CORKILL,N. L. (1932):The snakes of Iraq. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 35: 550-572. CORKILL, N.I., COCHRANE,J.A. (1965): The snakes of the ArabianPeninsula and Sokotra.J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 62 (3): 475-506. GASPERETTI,J. ( 1973):A preliminary sketch of the snakes of the Arabian Peninsula. J. Saudi Arab. Nat. Hist. Soc. 12: 1-72. KLEMMER,K. (1963):Liste der rezenten G iftschlangen.Behringwerk-Mitt., Sonderband "Die Giftschlan- gen der Erde": 255-464.