Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(9)

Lavilla, E. O. 2025. Science, Myth, and Otherness: Herpetological Readings of Linnaeus’s Lapland Journal. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(9):116–121.

After a turbulent beginning to the 18th century—marked by wars, famine, plague, and foreign invasions—Sweden began a slow process of reconstruction in 1721. It was in this context that Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) emerged, a figure who would not only reshape natural science but also wield considerable influence on Swedish economic policy well into the 1770s. Linnaeus promoted an innovative idea for the time: to reduce imports by identifying and acclimatizing useful plants from abroad, making them grow in the harsher environments of the Baltic states.

To achieve this goal, Linnaeus and his select group of students undertook scientific expeditions both in Sweden and across the globe. Their twin objectives were to understand the country’s ecology and to collect seeds and plants suitable for cultivation. These journeys also produced a wealth of information on plants, animals, minerals and human societies from all corners of the world, meticulously recorded under Linnaeus’s guidance.

Between 1732 and 1749, Linnaeus embarked on five major journeys through Sweden: to Lapland (1732), Dalarna (1734), the Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland (1741), Västergötland (1746), and Scania (1749). This article focuses solely on the 1732 Lapland expedition—Linnaeus’s first and most iconic journey. It marked the transformation of the student into a field naturalist and left a lasting imprint on his scientific development. The content of this article is based on the manuscript of the Iter Lapponicum held at the Linnean Society of London in 1732 and on the transcription prepared by Ewald Ährling in 1889.

Just Published — Now Available

ISHBH contributed to the publication this, the 35th volume in the Contributions to Herpetology series published by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. As a result ISHBH has a limited number of copies available for sale: ISHBH members $81.00 (plus postage), non-members $90.00 (plus postage). 

Savage, Jay M., Marcus Sparreboom and Gregory K. Pregill. 2025. The Dutch Indies Commission and the Herpetological Legacy of Heinrich Boie (1794–1827). SSAR, Villanova, xiv, 360 p. (7). Clothbound. $90 (ISHBH members $81) 

 Although never published, Heinrich Boie’s Erpétologie de Java, written two centuries ago, was one of the most influential herpetological works of the 19th century. Boie’s manuscript served as the basis for many descriptions of amphibians and reptiles published between the 1820s and 1850s by his brother Friedrich and leading herpetologists of the early 19th century like Schlegel, Fitzinger, Tschudi, Gravenhorst and Wagler. 

In this volume, Jay Savage, Marcus (Max) Sparreboom, and Gregory Pregill place Boie and his work in the context of The Natural History Commission of the Netherlands Indies — the larger scientific endeavour in which Boie was a participant — review Boie’s surviving manuscript text and accompanying plates housed in the archives of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, and trace Boie’s herpetological legacy through the generation of authors who were influenced by his work. The authorship of names attributed to Boie and the nomenclatural, taxonomic, and bibliographic details of the works that referenced Erpétologie de Java are also critically evaluated in a series of 16 appendices, resolving many nomenclatural issues relating to Southeast Asian reptiles and amphibians.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(8)

Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2025. Herpetology in the Report of the First Scientific Expedition to Manchuokuo. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(8):108–115.

In 1931, the Empire of Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria and in 1932 proclaimed the puppet state of Manchuokuo (spelled Manchukuo in the West). In 1933, they invaded the Chinese province of Jehol, formerly known as Rehe, to form a buffer zone between China and the puppet state of Manchuokuo. The First Scientific Expedition to Manchuokuo (FSEM) occurred during the transition from Han Chinese rule to Japanese rule, when Imperial Japan was interested in demonstrating to the world it could create a modern multi-ethnic Pan-Asian state. The FSEM centered its activities in Jehol between Chifeng, Chaoyang, and Chengde, the largest cities at the time, with occasional forays north or south of these cities, such as to the wetlands along the Chaogedu’er River in what is today the Yudaokou Grassland Forest Scenic Park.

The FSEM reported six species of amphibians and 10 species of reptiles from Jehol. No salamanders were found. The frogs Bombina orientalis, Dryophytes japonicus, and Kaloula borealis are now known to be present but were not observed. One lizard, Scincella modesta, and three snakes, Euprepiophis mandarinus, Oocatochus rufodorsatus, Orientocoluber spinalis, also were not recorded, although they are present on the western side of the Bohai Sea. No fossil amphibians or reptiles were found based on the summer fieldwork in northern Manchuokuo in 1933, but it was later noted that fossils of Pelodiscus maackii were found in Quaternary deposits near where Tokunaga had worked.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(7)

Bauer, A. M. 2025. Testudo atlas Barton, 1806, a long-forgotten synonym of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) and a senior secondary homonym of the largest tortoise that ever lived. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(7):101–107.

Benjamin Smith Barton (1766–1815) was based in Philadelphia, the cultural and intellectual hub of the United States at the turn of the 19^th century. Although he was plagued by unfinished projects, chronic debt, and was considered by some ambitious, untalented and unqualified (e.g., he never received the medical degree he claimed to have), Barton nonetheless achieved success and renown, holding positions of prestige and respect in institutions and societies in the United States and enjoying a positive reputation in Europe, where he had established a network of correspondents.

Barton was prolific, writing on medical topics and ethnography as well as natural history. In the field of herpetology his main contributions were on salamanders, rattlesnakes, and the alligator. Many of his papers were addressed to European colleagues and published in the form of letters to particular scientists. For example, his 1808 monograph on Siren was addressed to the philologist Johann Gottlob Schneider (1750–1822), although it was apparently never sent to him. However, beyond his more noteworthy contributions on amphibians and reptiles, Barton also published smaller notes, largely unnoticed by later workers, some of which proposed new names. For example, in 1807 Barton erected three new names for species of Cryptobranchus in The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, a periodical that he founded and edited. This paper had apparently been cited only once until it was recently rediscovered. I here provide a brief discussion of another Barton herpetological contribution, the description of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), that seems to have escaped detection for more than 200 years.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(6)

Jacobs, H. J., and G. M. Shea. 2025. The Natuurkundige Commissie on New Guinea in 1828. II. Serpentes (Colubridae, Elapidae, Typhlopidae) and Sauria (Agamidae, Dibamidae, Gekkonidae, Varanidae). Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(6):57–100.

The second Dutch Natuurkundige Commissie spent nearly twelve years in the Dutch East Indies. Most of the scientists died during the expedition, with only Salomon Müller returning to the Netherlands with the collections. The progressive loss of the senior scientists, Boie and Macklot, resulted in Müller moving up the ranks of seniority and taking progressively greater responsibility for the collection and documentation of the zoological collections. The recent release online of the archival manuscript material from this expedition has allowed a better understanding of the extent of their collections. In this second part of our study of the archival material relating to the expedition’s voyage to New Guinea in 1828, we document and translate the material relating to the eleven species of snakes and non-scincid lizards: Psamophis chlorogastra Müll. and Elaps oculiferus Müll., Dendrophis capistratus Müll., Dipsas lacrÿmans Müll., Tropidonotus picturatus Müll., Acontias polygrammicus Müll., Acontias coecus Cuvier, Calotes megapogon Müll., Hemidactylus baliatus Müll., Gonyodactylus Boiei Müll., and Varanus prasinus Mull., as Müller chose to call them. We place these descriptions and images in the context of the state of knowledge of the reptile fauna at the time of the Natuurkundige Commissie, as well as the contributions they made to progressing knowledge of the region’s herpetofauna, often involving formal publication of new taxa by Hermann Schlegel in Leiden and Duméril and Bibron in Paris, among others.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(5)

Bauer, A. M. 2025. John Hutchison Garnier (1823–1898) and his Contributions to the Herpetology of Ontario. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(5):35–56.

John Hutchison Garnier (1823–1898) was a pioneering herpetologist based in the town of Lucknow, Ontario. Some mystery surrounds his birthplace as well as his birthname. Garnier was a physician but spent much of his time hunting and observing wildlife. He built a large private natural history collection by exchanging specimens with correspondents all over the world. Among his papers on amphibians and reptiles was the first list of the herpetofauna of Ontario published in 1881 and augmented in 1882 and 1894. Although his species list was inflated with misidentifications and synonyms, he appears to have recognized 39 of the 50 species of amphibians and reptiles currently accepted as present in the province or recently extirpated. Garnier’s publications included several novel nomina. He described two species of Necturus from Ontario. While one is generally acknowledged and included in the synonymy of N. maculosus, the other has only been cited once in 144 years. Additional new varieties named by Garnier have likewise escaped notice. He also published on the two rattlesnake species in Ontario, including the now extirpated Crotalus horridus, and on treatments for snakebite. Most of Garnier’s work is now forgotten and only 50 Ontario specimens are confirmed as extant from his collection, now housed in the Royal Ontario Museum and the U.S. National Museum of Natural History. His activities as a frontier naturalist in the mid-19^th century represent a starting point for herpetological studies in Ontario.

2025 Business Meeting Announcement

Dear ISHBH members, 

The International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology (ISHBH) will be holding its annual business meeting and library tour during the JMIH conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 9-13. 

The business lunch is set for Thursday, July 10, at noon. We will need to estimate the number of attendees in order to reserve space. All ISHBH members planning on attending should contact Aaron Bauer or John Moriarty by July 5 to confirm their attendance. Please let us know if you will have any guests as well. Lunch will be at a nearby restaurant (easy walking distance from the venue). 

The library tour will be held at the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine on the Minneapolis Campus of the Univ. of MN on Friday, July 11 at 1:00 PM. The curators will have a selection of antiquarian herpetological books on display and have a tour of the vault. Because of the off-site location and space limitations, we also need to know how many people plan on coming to this event. Please contact Aaron Bauer or John Moriarty if interested in attending. If you have not yet registered for the JMIH meeting, early registration closes on June 8. I hope to see many of you in St. Paul in a few months. 

Best wishes, 

Aaron Aaron M. Bauer, Chair ISHBH

Letter to the Membership - Upcoming elections

Dear ISHBH members, The current slate of officers has been in office for too long! This was a necessity to get the ISHBH “re-established” after the death of our founding Chairman, Richard Wahlgren. With our recent approval of our tax-exempt status in the US and the transfer of our ISSN numbers (printed and electronic) from Swedish to American registration, we are able to move forward. Of the seven officers, four wish to step down at the end of their terms (John Murphy, Chris Bell, Luis Ceríaco, and Eric Hilton). Breck Bartholomew (Editor) and Ralph Tramontano (Managing Editor) are willing to continue in their positions. I (Aaron Bauer, Chair) am also happy to stay on in my position, but would also be content should someone else wish to take my place. Of utmost importance is the need for a new Treasurer. We seek someone with some experience for this position. While all other positions are open to any members, the Treasurer’s post is, for practical reasons, limited to members resident in the United States, where our bank (Wells Fargo) is located. Whole not an absolute necessity, it would be beneficial if the candidate for this position lived in a state with Wells Fargo offices (there are 37 such states), in case any future issue might require in person interactions at a branch office. It is likely that the Secretary’s role, at least in terms of managing the membership list will be combined with the main Treasurer’s function. We especially welcome candidates for any of the positions that would bring a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to the ISHBH Board. A willingness to engage is required, but the total time commitment for most positions is limited. Most positions are suitable for students and all positions except the Treasurer are open to members worldwide. If you have been enjoying Bibliotheca Herpetologica and Wahlgreniana or have joined in our annual meeting, please consider a more active participation in the ISHBH and submit your name to stand for election. Please either nominate someone (with their permission) or self-nominate for a Board position by contacting me (Aaron Bauer) before (30 June 2025). IF you are interested in the position of Treasurer, you may request more details of the requirements from Eric Hilton. [Contact information can be found at www.ISHBH.com].

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(4)

Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2025. Herpetological Contributions of Charles Conrad Abbott, Eccentric 19^th Century Archeologist and Naturalist. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(4):28–34.

Charles Conrad Abbott (4 June 1843 – 27 July 1919) was a controversial figure in the emerging science of archeology in the late 19^th Century. He was not a major influence on herpetology, but he was certainly well-known among the naturalists and scientists of his day. Although he was primarily professionally interested in archeology, he communicated extensively with the naturalists of his era, including Frederic Ward Putnam, Edward D. Cope, and Henry W. Fowler. He was the first to attempt documentation of the vertebrates of New Jersey, and his natural history observations based on his own direct field notes were of interest and widely referred to by later authors. No doubt, his natural history books stimulated much interest in the subject, and his reliance on direct observation by-passed the many “nature-faker” writers of his day. Charles Conrad Abbott was viewed by colleagues as cantankerous, difficult-to-be-around, somewhat sloppy in technical fieldwork, lazy, and stubborn, but he was definitely a curious character and an influential writer and naturalist following his own path in life.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(3)

Shea, G. M. 2025. The Mysterious Doctor Rurk and His Eponymous Catskink, Ristella rurkii Gray 1839 (Squamata: Scincidae: Lygosominae: Ristellini) with Notes on Other Collectors for the Museum of the Army Medical Service at Chatham. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(3):12–27.

Ristella rurkii, although stated originally to be named after a “Dr Rurk”, was likely named after Dr. William Augustus Burke, the first Inspector-General of Hospitals in India, who collected for the Museum of the Army Medical Service at Fort Pitt, Chatham. Burke was mostly based in north India, corresponding to the type locality of R. rurkii, and to the localities for his bird collections. However, the skink is only known from the Western Ghats of far southern India. With the type no longer extant, a neotype is designated to stabilise nomenclature. Known natural history collectors for the Fort Pitt Museum, along with their British Army service postings, are tabulated.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(2)

Bauer, A. M. 2025. Comments on Early Herpetological publications about Prince Edward Island, Atlantic Canada. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(2):7–11.

Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is Canada’s smallest province, with an area of 5660 km². Its herpetofauna is relatively depauperate. Ten species of amphibians and three species of snakes have been verified for the province. The most comprehensive publications devoted specifically to P.E.I. are those of Francis R. Cook (1960, 1967) who, along with J. Sherman Bleakney (1958) in his treatment of eastern Canada as a whole, provided a historical overview of studies on the herpetology of the province. They cited the works of John T. Mellish (1877) on snakes, Francis Bain (1890) on the herpetofauna in general, and Blythe Hurst (1944) on amphibians — all dedicated to Prince Edward Island specifically. They additionally cited several papers by Philip Cox (1847–1939), an educator and naturalist from New Brunswick.

Cook (1967) wrote “J.T. Mellish (1876) was probably the first author to publish on the Island herpetology.” However, a far earlier overview of the herpetofauna of P.E.I. was included by John Stewart (1806) in An Account of Prince Edward Island. Moriarty and Bauer (2024, State and Provincial Amphibian and Reptile Publications for the United States and Canada, Second Edition. Wahlgreniana 3.) included this work in their bibliography of P.E.I. herpetofaunal works, but the book has otherwise been uncited in the herpetological literature, and I take this opportunity to summarize its relevant content.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(1)

Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2025. How to Raise a Bullfrog—A Further Update with Information on a Possible Albert Broel Manuscript. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(1):1–6.

Tracing the history of an industry where obscure publications and ephemera predominate is difficult. Such is the case when documenting the history of frog farming in North America. Historians assemble as much material as possible before publishing their findings, but there is always the possibility of finding new information that had been unknown or unattainable previously. In this note, I present updated information on a publication mentioned in Dodd and Jennings (Bibliotheca Herpetologica 15(8)) that we had not been able to locate, report on another frog raising brochure, add a note on Albert Broel’s (American Frog Canning Company, New Orleans) 1945 frog-raising manual, and discuss a manuscript that might be an original outline for Broel’s system of giant bullfrog culture.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica Volume 18 Print Copy

The print copies have arrived and are being shipped this week.