Biodiversity of Angola by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030030834
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Bringing Knowledge of Angolan Reptiles into the Modern Era

Awareness of the interesting reptiles of the Angolan Namib region started incidentally following expeditions in the 1950s by the enthusiastic entomologist Charles Koch of the Transvaal Museum (TMP, now the Ditsong Natural History Museum, Pretoria, South Africa). Koch did much to inventory the amazing diversity of the tenebrionid beetle fauna of the Namib Desert, and much of his collecting involved walking at night in the desert with a pressure lamp. In addition to his numerous beetle discoveries Koch also collected many nocturnal and terrestrial reptiles, particularly geckos. These he gave to his colleague at the TMP, the Curator of Lower Vertebrates Vivian FitzSimons. Koch visited the northern Namib in Angola on four occasions (1951–1957), accompanied on the last trip by the Swedish zoologists Lundholm and Rudebeck. The herpetological collections during these trips were significant, and FitzSimons (1953, 1959) described a new genus of plated lizard Angolosaurus (now subsumed within Gerrhosaurus) as well two new species, Pachydactylus caraculicus and Prosymna visseri. Unreported, however, were many of Koch’s numerous other reptile discoveries, including new records of the iconic Namib Web-footed Gecko (Palmatogecko rangei, now included in Pachydactylus) in 1951 and 1954, then unknown from the Angolan Namib region. Laurent (1964) described the new Angolan Namib Day Gecko Rhoptropus taeniostictus from Angola, although nine specimens had already been collected by Koch during his trips, but remained undescribed. Also unrecorded were nine specimens of Pachydactylus scutatus angolensis from Lungo, Lucira and São Nicolau, the first collected since the description of the species by Loveridge (1944), and also 13 specimens of Chondrodactylus fitzsimonsi, at the time known from only one Angolan specimen (Pico Azevedo, Schmidt 1933).

In 1964 Wulf Haacke, born in Namibia, became the then Transvaal Museum’s herpetologist with a special interest in the arid western areas of southern Africa. In March–April 1971 he undertook his first trip to Angola, concentrating on the northern extension of the Namib Desert into southwestern Angola. A follow up trip in April–June 1974 targeted specific genera to confirm the northern range limits and taxonomic status of Cordylus, Cordylosaurus, Gerrhosaurus, Pachydactylus, Afroedura and Rhoptropus. Both trips were exceptionally successful resulting in over 2000 specimens, the largest herpetological collections ever assembled by one researcher in Angola. Although the amphibian collections made during these trips were reviewed by Poynton and Haacke (1993), the vast majority of the numerous new and rare reptiles contained in these collections were never formally published. Haacke’s second trip in 1974 was designed in particular to collect new material for his proposed thesis and revision of Rhoptropus. Prior to this trip, and excluding Koch’s undescribed material, less than 30 specimens of Rhoptropus were known from Angola (Bocage 1895; Parker 1936; Mertens 1938; Laurent 1964). At the end of Haacke’s surveys the Transvaal Museum held 650 specimens of the genus, included nearly 250 specimens of R. barnardi from over 25 localities, nearly 50 specimens of R. biporosus, and seven of R. afer. At the time R. barnardi in Angola was known from very few specimens (Bocage 1895; Schmidt 1933; Parker 1936; Laurent 1964) and R.

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