346 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature PROPOSED USE OF THE PLENARY POWERS TO DESIGNATE A TYPE-SPECIES FOR REGINA BAIRD & GIRARD, 1853 (REPTILIA). Z.N.(S.) 1443 By Hobart M. Smith and James E. Huheey (Department of Zoology and Museum, of Natural History, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, U.S.A.) The object of this application is to suppress under the plenary powers the specific name leberis Lumaeus, 1758, as published in the binomen Coluber leberis, a name recently discovered to be a senior subjective s3monym of another specific name which is commonly in use. The use of the plenary powers is also requested in order to designate a tjrpe-species for the genus Regina Baird & Girard which was originally based on a misidentification of Coluber leberis. 2. On zoological grounds it is apparent that the nominal species Coluber leberis Linnaeus, 1758 {Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 216) is a senior sjraonym of Coluber occipitomaculatus Storer, 1839 {Rept. Mass. : 230), accepted since 1853 asStoreria occipitomaculata (Storer). The original description of the species leberis gives the following information : male, 110 ventrals, 50 caudals, dark-striped, habitat in " Canada "fide Kalm. This description can fit only Storeria occipitomaculata auctorum, even if the geographic area is expanded to include eastern United States. Klauber {Copeia, 1948 : 11-12) has already noted the possibility of taxonomic equivalence of Coluber leberis Linnaeus, and Coluber occipitomaculata Storer, but was not prepared to express positive opinion. For our own part, we hold no doubts in the matter. 3. Baird & Girard, 1853 {Cat. n. Amer. Rept. : 45) set up the new genus Regina. In the Introduction to this work they state (: viii) "... the first mentioned species is to be considered as the t5rpe of the genus ". The type-species of Regina is " Regina leberis B. & G." and the synonymy given shows that the specific name is from Coluber leberis Linnaeus, 1758. However, the description of the genus and the species, as well as the inclusion of Coluber septemvittatus Say, 1825 (J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad. 4 : 240) (=Natrix septem-vittata) in the specific synonymy clearly show that Baird & Girard misidentified the type-species in applying to it the name Coluber leberis Linnaeus. Almost without exception, however, it has been taken for granted that the type-species of Regina is the species now known as Natrix septemvittata. 4. Four species universally referred for the past forty years or more to the large genus Natrix have recently been segregated generically (Smith & Huheey, 1960, Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 62, in press). This group of species has often been referred to iirformaUy as the " Regina " group, since it includes Coluber septemvittatus, commonly accepted as the tjrpe-species of the nominal genus Regina, in turn the earUest generic name having as t3rpe any of the four species of the group. Bull. zool. Nomencl., Vol. 17, pts. 9-11. September 1960.
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