TRANSACTIONS OF THE SAN DIEGO MU8. COMP. ZOOL SOCIETY OF LIBRARY NATURAL HISTORY JUL 91964 HARVARD UNlVMSiTY, Volume 20 Number 1 pp. 1 51 -1 64 20 June 1 984 Type specimens of amphibians and reptiles in the San Diego Natural History Museum Gregory K. Pregill and James E. Berrian Department of Herpetology, San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, CA 92112 USA Publishing a list of type specimens in a collection serves several purposes. For those who compile them, the inventory is a propitious means of revealing the taxonomic and nomenclatural errors and inconsistencies that routinely creep into a collection. For users, the list provides a comprehensive reference to that institution's holdings of primary and secondary types, and serves as a guide to the original literature, perhaps even yielding insights into the nomenclatural history of the taxa. In generating the present account, we made use of the only previous publication of type specimens of amphibians and reptiles in the San Diego Natural History Museum, compiled by Allan J. Sloan in 1965 (Transactions San Diego Society of Natural History (14(1): 1-8). Sloan listed only holotypes, which at the time numbered 48, all of reptiles. To make the present list more comprehensive we have included all paratypic material, and revised the now expanded list of holotypes. The collection currently includes holotypes of 1 frog, 14 lizards and 41 snakes. As well, there are several hundred paratypes of 24 additional taxa. Locating all secondary types in the collection was a difficult task because many of these specimens had not been so designated in the early years of cataloging, nor were they segregated from the main collection. Subspecies comprise the majority of primary and secondary types, many of which have been synonymized since their original description. Readers familiar with the collections of amphibians and reptiles at the San Diego Natural History Museum are aware that the geographic emphasis favors the Southwest, Baja California and the Gulf of California Islands; this is reflected in the type localities that follow. For many years the collections of amphibians and reptiles at the San Diego Natural History Museum were closely tied to the activities of Laurence M. Klauber, although the full history extends beyond the KJauber era back to the Society's inception in 1 874. Klauber began his herpetological studies as an avocation in 1920, conducting most of his research and maintaining the collections in the basement of his home. By 1960 he had amassed 35 000 specimens. These, as well as his vast library of over 20 000 books and reprints, were donated to the San Diego Society of Natural History, whence they were housed in the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. At the time of Klauber's death in 1968, the number of specimens of amphibians and reptiles at the museum was over 50 000. Over the years the collection has had many contributors, among the earliest being the celebrated naturalists of the Southwest, Charles R. Orcutt and Frank Stephens. Later, during the middle third of this century, the collection benefited considerably from the efforts of C. B. Perkins and Charles E. Shaw. Klauber's legendary interest in rattlesnakes alone resulted in an enormous series of Crotalus and a substantial repre-sentation of reptiles native to the Far West and northern Mexico. Indeed, during the 1 10-year history of the Society, the museum has benefited from the interests and travels of many individuals. Hence, the collections of amphibians and reptiles are flavored
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