Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 55(4) December 1998 229 Case 3005 Crotalus ruber Cope, 1892 (Reptilia, Serpentes): proposed precedence of the specific name over that of Crotalus exsul Carman, 1884 Hobart M. Smith'. Lauren E. Brown^. David Chiszar^, L. Lee Grismer'', G. Scott Allen^ Alex Fishbein-\ Bradford D. Hollingsworth*^. Jimmy A. McGuire^, Van Waiiach^, Peter Strimple' and Ernest A. Liner'" (Addresses on p. 232) Abstract. The purpose of this appHcation is to conserve the long used and well known specific name of Crotalus ruber Cope, 1 892 for the red diamond rattlesnake (family viPERiDAE) of southern California, the peninsula of Baja California and some offshore islands, by giving it precedence over the less widely used name C. exsul Garman. 1884. The latter name refers to the rattlesnake of the Isla de Cedros. Baja California. Mexico, which some authors now consider to be conspecific with C. ruber. Keywords. Nomenclature: taxonomy; Reptilia: Serpentes: viperidae: rattlesnakes; Crotalus ruber; Crotalus e.xsul; California; Mexico. 1 . In 1884 Garman (p. 1 14) described a rattlesnake Crotalus exsul from the Isla de Cedros. Baja California. Mexico. He mentioned two specimens (catalog no. MCZ 652 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Cambridge. Massachusetts). Gannan's publication was printed in 1883 but not issued until July 1884 (see the MCZ Annual Report for 1883-1884. pp. 23. 32: the MCZ library copy is stamped '19 June 1884"). In 1892 Cope (p. 690) described a rattlesnake which is commonly known as the red diamond rattlesnake. This was originally published as Crotalus adamanteus ruber and was based on a single specimen, catalog no. USNM 9209 in the U.S. National Museum. Washington. No locality was mentioned and subsequently Smith & Taylor (1950. p. 356) restricted the type locality to Dulzura. San Diego Co.. California. 2. For nearly 70 years (since Klauber. 1930, pp. 20-21 ) the range of Crotalus exsul Garman. 1884 has been accepted as solely the Isla de Cedros. whereas its close relative, the red diamond rattlesnake, C ruber Cope, 1892 has been understood to extend from southern California throughout the peninsula of Baja California and on some of its offshore islands. 3. The two taxa have, however, long been regarded as only weakly differentiated (see, for example, Brattstrom, 1964, p. 244; Campbell & Lamar, 1989, p. 348). Grismer. McGuire & Hollingsworth (1994. p. 69) regarded Minton (1992, who used the name Crotalus exsul) as the earliest author to regard them as conspecific. but this was an error, as pointed out by Murphy et al. (1995) and confirmed by Minton himself (personal communication): he had only a single specimen, from Isla de Cedros. Possibly following that misinterpretation, Grismer (1993, p. 4) implied conspecificity by using the trinomen C. exsul exsul without comment. Grismer & Mellink (1994. p. 124) subsequently mentioned that they regarded the two taxa as
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