Herpetological note XIII

Pseudothecadactylus nom. nov. In this journal I (Brongersma, 1934, p. 176) described a new genus of gekkonid lizards under the name Torresia. As Dr H. A. Longman, Brisbane, kindly pointed out to me this name is preoccupied by Torresia Castelnau, 1875 (cf. D. S. Jordan, The Genera of Fishes, part III, 1919, p. 378). The genus of gekkonid lizards may now be named: Pseudothecadactylus, type of genus: Thecadactylus australis Gthr., 1877. For the description I may refer to my previous paper on this subject. Dendroaspis Schlegel In recent literature on African herpetology it is usual to give the name Dendraspis Schlegel to a genus of snakes of which Elaps jamesoni Traill, 1843, is the type. Schlegel (1848?, p. 5), however, gave the name Dendroaspis to this genus. The date of publication could not be ascertained with certainty. The description was communicated in a meeting held on March 13th 1848; the signature of the publication containing this description ends with the first sentence of the proceedings of a meeting held on July 10th 1848; this sentence is continued in the next signature, which also contains the proceedings of the meetings of 1849. It is very well possible, however, that each signature was published separately. It may be noted that the name Dendraspis had been used by Fitzinger (1843, p. 28) for a genus of which Naja bungarus Schlegel, 1837 (= Hamadryas hannah Cantor, 1836) is the type, so that this name cannot be used for the African genus. I am indebted to Dr A. L. J. Sunier, Director, Mr. J. F. Haring, and Miss J. Scheffer, Librarian of the Amsterdam Zoological Garden for their assistance in searching for any evidence that might definitely settle the date