February, 2004] NOTES 113

JOARDAR, S. & S. K. GHOSAL. 1977. pressive are colloquially known as Spermiogenesis in the pigeon. Proc. Int. Symp. ‘Oriental rat snakes’. Avian Endocrinol. Calcutta: 75. As these snakes are conspicuous members of MALLICK, P. K. & S. K. GHOSAL. 1999. the Oriental fauna, they received attention Duration of meiosis and spermiogenesis in in nearly all works on the herpetofauna of tropi- Limnonectes limnocharis. Hamadryad 24(2): cal Asia. To the best of our knowledge, the ge- 45-47. neric nomen has always been treated as a SINHA, G. M., S. MONDAL, T. MIDYA & masculine noun (see, for example, the S.K.GHOSAL.1979. Chronology of meiosis chresonymies given in David and Vogel, 1996). and spermiogenesis in a fresh-water teleost fish, Recently, Dr. Werner Kästle (pers. comm. to the Colisa fasciata (Block and Schneider), Z. second author, April 2000) pointed out that the Mikrosk. Anat. Forsch. 93: 442-448. gender of this is, in fact, feminine. ______,______& S. K. GHOSAL. The word Ptyas derives from the ancient 1983. Meiosis and spermiogenesi in a fresh wa- Greek noun ptuaV, meaning “a spitter”. The ori- ter teleost fish, Channa punctata (Bloch): an es- gin of this name is unclear. According to timation of their duration by autoradiographic Stejneger (1907: 345, footnote), this name was method. Cytologia 48: 87-93. applied to a of snake known to the ancient Greeks for its hissing or spitting behaviour, prob- Pranab K. Mallick1 & Sudhangsu K. Ghosal2 ably evoked when annoyed. Gotch (1986: 136) 1Department of Zoology, Dum Dum Motijheel mentioned that the Ptyas was a serpent which College,1, Motijheel Avenue, Kolkata 700 074, could supposedly spit venom into the eyes of an West Bengal, . aggressor. Our dictionaries reveal Ptyas as a ven- Email: omous Asp which was capable of spitting saliva. [email protected]/pranab_mallic The word ptuaV was derived from the word [email protected] ptuw, meaning “the saliva”. According to the dic- 2Professor of Zoology (Retd.) Zoology tionaries of classical Greek language we con- Department, Burdwan University, Burdwan sulted, the noun ptuaV is indeed of feminine 713 104, West Bengal, India. gender. The noun Ptyas (gen. Ptyadis) was also adopted by the ancients who spoke Latin, also Received: 1 January 2003. with a feminine gender. According to Plinius the Accepted: 17 September 2003. Elder (23-79 A.D.), who wrote the monumental work entitled “Natural History” in 37 volumes Hamadryad Vol. 28, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 113 – 116, 2004 Copyright 2004 Centre for Herpetology (the first 10 volumes published in 77 A.D.), it Madras Crocodile Bank Trust was a kind of venomous snake. Therefore, On the grammar of the gender whether the generic nomen derives from the Greek or Latin languages, this noun is indeed of of Ptyas Fitzinger, 1843 feminine gender, which has been largely over- (Serpentes: ) looked in the herpetological literature. The colubrid genus Ptyas Fitzinger, 1843 consti- In fact, Stejneger (1907: 345, footnote) did tutes a conspicuous component of the snake notice the feminine gender of the nomen, but fauna of central, southern and south-eastern nevertheless regarded it as masculine, since Asia. It includes the largest colubrid in the world, Cope (1861) and all subsequent authors after him (Günther, 1858), with a maximal treated it as such. The genus Ptyas was estab- size of 3.80 m, and at least two other species lished by Fitzinger (1843: 26; Type species: reach and sometimes exceed 3 m in total length. Coluber blumenbachii Merrem, 1820 [a subjec- A second species, is abundant tive junior of Coluber mucosus within its range, rather anthropophilous, and an Linnaeus, 1758] by original designation) as a important control agent of . These im- subgenus of Macrops Wagler, 1830 (a synonym 114 HAMADRYAD [Vol. 28, Nos.1&2, of Chironius Fitzinger, 1826, see Williams and Ptyas korros (Schlegel, 1837), Ptyas luzonensis Wallach, 1989: 91). Therefore, the original de- (Günther, 1873), (Linnaeus, scription does not cast light on the grammar of 1758), and Ptyas nigromarginata (Blyth, 1854). the gender, to which it is at present allocated. These list call for some additional comments. Nevertheless, as the noun Ptyas was used as a ge- The specific nomen dhumnades (created as nus-group name unmodified from the Greek lan- Coluber dhumnades) appeared to Stejneger guage, it must match the gender of the Greek (1907: 352), to be an adjective indicating similar- noun, according to Article 30.1.2 of the Interna- ity to Coluber dhumna Cantor, 1839. However, it tional Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, may also be regarded as a modern Greek noun 1999; referred to subsequently as the Code). formed from a stem to which was added the The nomenclatural consequence is that, as Greek suffix -(oi)des, meaning “similar to”. In species-group names which end in a Latinized this case, this derivative may be regarded as a adjective must agree in gender with the generic noun in apposition. According to Art. 31.2.2 of nomen according to the Article 31.2 of the Code, the Code, such a nomen of uncertain origin must all specific nomina included in the genus Ptyas be treated as a noun in apposition, which retains which are based on such an adjective must have its original spelling. The specific nomina dipsas their termination changed accordingly, in agree- and korros are clearly nouns in apposition, which ment with Art. 34.2 of the Code. remain unmodified. Stejneger (1907: 348) stated Listing the specific names which must be that the noun korros has been erroneously ap- changed require some comments, as the system- plied to a member of the genus Ptyas, as, accord- atics of the Oriental rat snakes at the generic level ing to Schlegel himself, it was the Javanese continue to be without consensus (see Lazell, vernacular name (literally meaning ‘thin’ or 1998; Pinou and Dowling, 2000, for conflicting ‘slender’) of another snake, Elaphe melanurus viewpoints). The genera Ptyas Fitzinger, 1843 (Boie, 1827), at present referred to as Elaphe and Zaocys Cope, 1861 (p. 563. Type species flavolineata (Schlegel, 1837) or Coelognathus Coluber dhumnades Cantor, 1842 by original flavolineatus (see Helfenberger, 2001a, 2001b). designation) have been recognized as distinct by In fact, vernacular names provided in Hoesel Günther (1864) and subsequent authors, before (1959: 32) make it clear that the Indonesian name being synonymised by Wall (1923) and again by “koros” is indeed applied to Ptyas korros and Taylor (1965). However, this synonymy was not Ptyas mucosa. Lastly, Dixon et al. (1993: 92) subsequently accepted by all authors (see, for ex- have shown that the taxon Ptyas tornieri Werner, ample, Smith, 1943). The suggestion by Lazell et 1896 (see David and Vogel, 1996: 108) was al. (1991) to synonymize both Ptyas and Zaocys based on a misidentified specimen Chironius with Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 was generally not exoletus, a South American species which must followed by other authors. Even in three recent therefore be removed from the Asian fauna. works on the snake fauna of south-eastern Asia, Future studies may prove that the genus these genera were either considered synony- Zaocys Cope, 1861 is a valid taxon. Although the mous (David and Vogel, 1996; Chan-ard et al., dictionaries are useful in confirming the gram- 1999) or valid (Manthey and Grossmann, 1997). mar of the gender of Ptyas, the matter is more According to V. Wallach (in David and Vogel, complicated with the etymology of Zaocys.Ac- 1996: 104), anatomical data support the synon- cording to Stejneger (1907: 352, footnote), this ymy of Zaocys with Ptyas (see also Wallach, nomen is based on the Greek words za a prefix 1998); we follow this interpretation here. meaning “very”, and oxuV, meaning “swift”. Ac- According to the preceding commentary, the cording to our dictionaries of classical Greek lan- feminine genus Ptyas currently includes the fol- guage, oxuV may mean “acute, pointed, sharp”, lowing species: Ptyas carinata (Günther, 1858), or “keen”, or “swift, prompt, agile”, all qualifica- Ptyas dhumnades (Cantor, 1842), Ptyas dipsas tions appropriate for these long-headed, agile (Schlegel, 1837), Ptyas fusca (Günther, 1858), snakes. Consequently, this genus-group name is