Kinixys castanea Bell, 1827 : p. 398

Nowak-Kemp, Małgosia & Fritz, Uwe, 2010, Chelonian type specimens at the Oxford University Museum, Zootaxa 2604 (1), pp. 1-19 : 15

Kinixys castanea Bell, 1827: p. 398 , plate XVII: fig. 1

Current name: Kinixys erosa (Schweigger, 1812)

Syntypes ( 3 specimens): OUM 8519 ( Bell Collection , Catalogue of Testudinata No. 17a; whole, stuffed specimen, SCL 29. 2 cm) ; OUM 8520 ( Bell Collection , Catalogue of Testudinata No. 17c; shell, SCL 20.4 cm) ; OUM 8521 ( Bell Collection , not listed in the Catalogue of Testudinata; shell, SCL 23.5 cm) .

Remarks: As evident from page 398 in Bell (1827), the description of his Kinixys castanea was exclusively based on specimens from his collection. The stuffed tortoise OUM 8519 agrees with the “ dimensions of a remarkably large specimen ” in Bell (1827: p. 399). We identify this tortoise with the individual initially kept alive by him, because Bell mentions that this specimen was “ after its death sent to be stuffed ”. Bell (1827: p. 393) mentions further that he “ became possessed of several [additional] shells of this species ”, which is why we conclude that OUM 8520-8521 are syntypes. Since none of these specimens is to be identified with the shell figured in Bell (1827: plate XVII: fig. 1), more than these two shells must have been present originally. In the Bell Collection is a second stuffed Kinixys erosa (OUM 1093) that is distinctly smaller than OUM 8519 ( 24.3 cm vs. 29.2 cm). We suppose that Bell obtained this tortoise later because he was not satisfied with the quality of the first specimen after mounting it ( Bell 1827: p. 399). Consequently, we do not regard OUM 1093 as syntype.