Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India

Abstract

We list the herpetological voucher specimens in the holdings of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), a wildlife research institute in India. Most of the collections are the fruition of fieldwork by SACON’s herpetologist and a coauthor of this work—late Dr. Subramanian Bhupathy (1963–2014). Taxonomically, the collection represents 125 species, comprising 29 amphibian species belonging to eight families and 96 reptilian species belonging to 17 families. Geographically, the material in this collection originates from the Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats, the Deccan Plateau, and the Coromandel Coast, comprehensively covering all ecoregions of peninsular India. A total of 15 taxa (three amphibians, 12 reptiles) remain to be fully identified and are provisionally referred to most-resembling taxa, with cf. prefix. All the specimens in this collection are non-types as on date.

Keywords

• amphibians
• biological museum
• distribution
• reptiles
• taxonomy