Gerrhosaurus vallidus Smith, 1849 



The original description of Gerrhosaurus vallidus appears on page 9 of the 

 Appendix. The species name is indeed spelled with a double-L, and although Sundevall's 

 name (as "Sunderall") follows suggesting him to be the original author, it is Smith to whom 

 this taxon must be credited. As no etymology of the species name is given, it can only be 

 guessed whether Smith wished to dedicate this species to the Swedish zoologist by perhaps 

 using a good-natured bowdlerization of the latter's name or a possible nickname. 



Two facts are, however, quite obvious, i.e. that there is no justification for assuming 

 that the species name is related to the word "valid" nor that the spelling with a single-L 

 was intended since the name is not mentioned in the Errata slip. All subsequent spellings 

 "validus" are therefore incorrect. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



In the following, a complete table of contents of Smith' s Reptilia volume is provided 

 in alphabetical order. The actual position of the pages in the originally unnumbered main 

 text chapter are given in brackets and this usage is suggested for all future quotations. As 

 Waterhouse (1880) did not provide separate dates for the text pages it is to be supposed 

 that these were issued with the relevant plates and I have paginated them accordingly. It 

 begins with text page (1) which is supposed to have accompanied Plate 1 and deals with 

 Sternotherus sinuatus. Page numbers of the Appendix pages are preceded by an "A-" here, 

 but I wish to emphasize that this is meant only to distinguish them from the pages of the 

 main text chapter in the current list in order to minimize the risk of confusion. Plate and 

 figure numbers are quoted as they appear, except that in the text they are referred to by 

 Roman numbers whereas they appear in Latin numbers on the plates themselves; Latin 

 numbers have been adopted here throughout. No cross-indexing has been undertaken 



The numbers of parts and dates of their publication given follow Waterhouse (1 880; 

 reprinted and annotated by Barnard [1950]). The title page shows the year 1849 as 

 publication date and was probably issued together with the Appendix and the Index, It 

 remains unclear though whether the latter were issued together with the final part, i.e. 28, 

 or in fact represent a 29th instalment. For this reason, only the year and no part number is 

 given in the table of contents hereunder. 



N.B.: The anonymous reviewer of the manuscript kindly advised me that the reprint ( 1 977) 

 of this volume uses a pagination different to that worked out here For example, the 

 text for Sternotherus siuuatus, which must bear page number (1) according to the 

 sequence of plates, is dealt with there as page 25 I was unfortunately unable to 

 examine a copy of this rare reprint and therefore could not include a column showing 

 these page numbers in comparison 



