Hemichirotes tridactylus Duges 1894

Hemichirotes tridactylus Dugès, 1894 a

The original description of this species appeared in Cope (1894) in the May issue of “The American Naturalist”. Cope credited the description to Dugès’ manuscript describing a new amphisbaenian from Guerrero, Mexico. Cope published an abbreviated version of the description that Dugès published in “La Naturaleza” (Dugès 1894b). Copes’paper reproduces five of the eight figures as they were published by Dugès (Pl. XX 1’ and 1–7). To satisfy the criterion of availability, according to Article 5.1.1 of the ICZN (1999), the name should be credited to Dugès, since Cope had no specimen, at ANSP or USNM, upon which to base his description (Cochran 1961; Malnate 1971), the figures reproduced in Cope (1894) are the same as those made by Dugès except for a drawing of a scale (Figure 6 g in Cope 1894) and published later the same year. When Smith & Taylor (1950), published the checklist of Mexican reptiles; they reported that the only specimen known at the time, was the type at the MADUG (Smith & Taylor 1950:38).

The holotype for this species is still at the MADUG (HE 127; Fig. 5 B). A detailed description of this specimen is given by Smith & Necker (1943).

Current valid name: Bipes tridactylus (Dugès in Cope, 1894).