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.