Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 397 PROPOSED REJECTION OF THE NEOTYPE AND TYPE-LOCALITY OF THAMN0PHI8 SI RTALIS (LINN AEVS, 1758) (REPTILIA). Z.N.(S.) 1600 By Francis Cook {National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario) The purpose of this submission is to show that the type-locality for Thamnophis sirtalis (Linnaeus), validated by Opinion 385 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1956, Ops. Decls. int. Comm. zool. Nomencl. 12 : 191-230), was originally restricted in error. In accordance with recommendation 72E of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 1961 the Commission is requested to set aside that part of the origmal ruling pertaining to the t3rpe-locality of sirtalis and replace it with an indisputable type-locahty restriction. 2. Thamnophis sirtalis (Linnaeus) remained unchallenged as the legal name for the Eastern Garter Snake from 1758 until Klauber (1948, Copeia (1) : 1-14) pointed out that it had been incorrectly applied. In the original description of Coluber sirtalis Linnaeus (1758, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, p. 22) based on a specimen from " Canada " collected by Kalm, the subcaudal scale count was given as 114. Among the snakes of eastern North America which fit the simple Linnaean description only the Eastern Ribbon Snake has this many subcaudal scales. By strict rule of priority, therefore, sirtalis is the correct name for the Eastern Ribbon Snake, and the name it has long been known under, sauritus Linnaeus, 1766, is a synonym. The first name with a description that fits the Eastern Garter Snake is ordinatus (as first pubhshed in the combination Coluber ordinatus Linnaeus, 1766, Syst. Nat. ed. 12, p. 385). The strict legality of this arrangement has never been questioned since Klauber imveiled it. Due to the confusion that would have followed such a major name shuffle (and indeed did follow to some extent after pubHcation of Klauber's article) of two common and well-known species, Schmidt and Conant (1951, Bull. zool. Nomencl. 2 : 67-68) proposed that the plenary powers of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature be used to vaUdate the use of sirtalis for the Eastern Garter Snake and that this name should "... apply to the species described and figured as Tropidonotus^ sirtalis by J. E. Holbrook in 1842 in North American Herpetology : or a description of the reptiles inhabiting the United States, Philadelphia, Dobson ; 5 vols., illus. (Vol. 4 : 41, pi. 11) and that " Canada " (restricted to the vicinity of Quebec, see Robert F. Inger, 1946, Copeia 1946 : 254) is to be treated as the type-locahty of the species . . . ". 4. A counter proposal, that sirtalis be suppressed by placing it on the Official Index of Rejected and InvaUd Specific Names in Zoology, ordinatus be recognized for the Eastern Garter Snake, and sauritus for the Eastern Ribbon Snake, both to be placed on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology, was made by Dowling (1952, Bull. zool. Nomencl. 6 : 144-146). 5. In a vote by the Commission the Schmidt and Conant proposal was accepted and, therefore, the Dowling alternative rejected (Opinions and Declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 12 (pt. 6) : Opinion 385, p. 214). Bull. zool. Nomencl, Vol. 20, Part 5. October, 1963.
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