MARQUES ET AL.: AMPHIBIANS AND TERRESTRIAL REPTILES OF ANGOLA 
9 
Abstract 
The present work eonstitutes an historieal atlas of all known bibliographie reeords of amphib¬ 
ians and reptiles of Angola. It is the first attempt to eompile in a single doeument all the reeords 
seattered through hundreds of publieations, published from the first half of the nineteenth eentury 
to the present day, and provide a eritieal taxonomie revision of the herpetofauna of the eountry. An 
introduetory text diseusses the Angolan soeio-politieal and physiographie landseape, the history of 
herpetologieal researeh in the eountry, and the diversity, distribution and endemism of Angolan her¬ 
petofauna. It also provides a summary of the eonservation eoneems surrounding the herpetologieal 
fauna. For eaeh taxon noted in the literature we provide a detailed taxonomie aeeount, ineluding 
data on the original deseription, its lUCN assessment status, global distribution, georefereneed 
reeords for eaeh known oeeurrenee in Angola (aeeompanied by a point loeality map), and taxo¬ 
nomie and distributional notes. A synoptie list of all doeumented Angolan amphibian and reptile 
speeies is provided as are lists of taxa previously erroneously assigned to the Angolan fauna. We 
reeognize 117 speeies of frogs and 278 speeies of reptiles as oeeurring in Angola, although many 
of these represent speeies eomplexes or are eurrently reeognized under names of eonvenienee 
pending taxonomie evaluation. In one instanee we provide a replaeement name, Trachylepis 
monardi nom. nov., to deal with an instanee of seeondary homonymy. The Atlas is intended to be 
a working referenee for both eurrent researeh and eonservation planning, as well as a eatalyst for 
future work. 
Resumo 
O presente trabalho eonstitui um atlas historieo referente a todos os registos bibliografieos de 
anfibios e repteis de Angola. Apresenta-se assim eomo um primeira tentativa de eompilar num 
unieo doeumento todos os registos dispersos por entre eentenas de publieagoes, desde a primeira 
metade do seeulo XIX ate ao presente, e provideneia uma revisao taxonomiea critiea da herpeto¬ 
fauna do pais. Este atlas eontem textos introdutorios sobre Angola, englobando a paisagem soeio- 
politiea e fisiografiea Angolana, a historia da investiga^ao herpetologiea no pais, a diversidade, 
distribuigao e endemismo da herpetofauna Angolana, bem eomo uma revisao dos problemas de 
conserva^ao que afeetam a fauna herpetologiea naeional. Para eada taxa euja oeorreneia esta 
eonfirmada, sao apresentadas fiehas taxonomieas detalhadas, passando em revista desde os dados 
referentes a deseri 9 ao original do taxa, a sua elassifiea 9 ao de aeordo eom a lUCN, a distribui 9 ao 
global, uma detalhada e georefereneiada lista de todos os registos para Angola - todos eles mapea- 
dos num mapa inteiramente dedieado, bem eomo notas taxonomieas e de distribui 9 ao. O apendiee 
eontem listas sinoptieas sobre todas as especies de anfibios e repteis que oeorrem em Angola, bem 
eom listas dos taxa erradamente referidos para a fauna Angolana. Reconheeemos a oeorreneia em 
Angola de 117 espeeies de anfibios e 278 de repteis, embora muitas destas representem eomplex- 
os de espeeies ou estao atualmente refereneiados atraves de nomes de eonvenieneia ate nova avali- 
a 9 ao taxonomiea. Num easo provideneiamos um nome de substitui 9 ao, Trachylepis monardi nom. 
nov., para resolver uma situa 9 ao de homonimia seeundaria. 
O presente Atlas tern eomo objeetivo ser uma refereneia de trabalho para aetuais pesquisas e 
pianos de eonserva 9 ao, bem eomo um eatalisador de futures trabalhos. 
Introduction 
Angola, with an area of nearly 1,250,000 km^, is one of the largest eountries in Afriea. Due to 
its geographie position, it is highly heterogeneous in terms of elimate, topography and biomes. 
Angola’s rieh landseape diversity and geographie position supports an amazingly diverse yet still 
poorly known biota. Its eomplex and troubled reeent history made the eountry almost inaeeessible 
