Tarentola gigas ( Bocage, 1875 )

Parrinha, Diogo, Calado, Francisco M. G., Marques, Mariana P., Bauer, Aaron M. & Ceríaco, Luis M. P., 2025, Echoes of a lost museum: Revision of the herpetological collections sent by Barbosa du Bocage from the Lisbon Museum to the British Museum of Natural History, Vertebrate Zoology 75, pp. 353-404 : 353-404

Tarentola gigas ( Bocage, 1875) *

Specimen.

Cabo Verde: Ilheo Raso : BMNH 1875.4.26.11 (not examined) [putative paralectotype] .

Comments.

Bocage (1875) described Ascalabotes gigas based on an unspecified number of specimens collected by Francisco Frederico Hopffer from Ilheo Raso (= Raso Islet), and in the same year presented a duplicate to the British Museum ( NHMA /DF/ZOO/200/1/191 ). Boulenger (1885 a) reported the specimen sent by Bocage, although he did not note it to be a type. Another duplicate was presented by Bocage to the ZMB and was designated lectotype ( ZMB 8998) by Bauer and Günther (1991). Although not noted by Boulenger (1885 a), it is plausible to assume that the specimen presented to the British Museum was part of the type series, considering that those collected by Hopffer in 1874 were the only specimens available to Bocage at the time ( Bocage 1896 a), and all specimens sent in the 1875 shipment are regarded as types. The putative paralectotype could not be located during our visits.