Bibliotheca Herpetologica 18(4)

Bell, C. J., and T. J. LaDuc. 2024. Hermon Carey Bumpus and the Reptiles and Batrachians of Rhode Island, with Comments on Other Herpetological Content in Random Notes on Natural History, 1884–1886. Bibliotheca Herpetologica, Vol. 18(4):44–59. Published online April 24, 2024. Random Notes on Natural History was a short-lived serial publication that appeared in the late 1800s, persisted for a few years and was then discontinued. It was published in Providence, Rhode Island as monthly issues in three volumes from January 1884 through December 1886. The inaugural issue noted that the serial was “a pamphlet devoted to the distribution of useful knowledge concerning the various departments of zoology, mineralogy, and botany.” It also carried contributions dedicated to geology, methods in taxidermy, biographical notes on naturalists, and news of local and regional science societies. It was Hermon Bumpus’s series on the herpetology of Rhode Island that drew us to the journal. His was the earliest attempted summary of the herpetofauna of that state and was the most important of the herpetological contributions published in Random Notes on Natural History. We provide a biographical sketch of Bumpus and his contributions to science and museology, an overview of his contribution to the herpetology of Rhode Island, and a brief notice of other herpetological content that appeared in Random Notes on Natural History.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 18(3)

Rösler, H., P. Daszkiewicz, I. Ineich & W. Böhme 2024. Lacertulus minimus variegatus Plumier – a pre-Linnean description of a remarkable gecko (Gekkota: Sphaerodactylidae: Sphaerodactylus) from Haiti (Greater Antilles). Bibliotheca Herpetologica 18(3):36–43. Published April 12, 2024. Charles Plumier, a priest of the Minims religious order, was a pioneer of botany in the West Indies at the end of the 17th century. He authored numerous zoological drawings and detailed descriptions, such as those on fish or crocodile anatomy. Many authors have subsequently used his manuscripts for their own publications and descriptions of new taxa. Among his botanical plates is a watercolor insert of a small lizard which he described and named Lacertulus minimus variegatus in a separate manuscript. Although coined prior to the adoption of the Linnean nomenclature, this nomen was used by subsequent authors and we determine its identification here. We conclude that this watercolor and the description later attached to it correspond to the endemic Haitian taxon Sphaerodactylus elegans punctatissimus. This means that the watercolor of Lacertulus minimus variegatus is probably the first pictorial representation of a species of this speciose genus.