Psammophylax ocellatus (Bocage, 1873)

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

Psammophylax ocellatus (Bocage, 1873)

Specimen.

Angola: Humbe : BMNH 1882.6.9.1 .

Comments.

Bocage (1873 a) described Psammophylax ocellatus based on a single specimen collected by Anchieta from “ l’intérieur de Mossamedes (Gambos) ”, and later reported additional specimens collected by Anchieta in Humbe but referred this material to Psammphylax rhombeatus ( Bocage 1895 a) . One of these specimens was presented to the British Museum in 1882 as Psammophylax ocellatus ( NHMA /DF/ZOO/200/1/195 ). Even though Günther thought that “ Psammophylax ocellatus seems to be an excellent species ” ( AHMB /CE/G94 ), Boulenger (1896) reported the specimen as Trimerorhinus rhombeatus . Broadley examined the specimen in 1968 and recovered ocellatus as a valid subspecies ( Broadley 1977 b). While recent material collected in the Humpata Plateau validate the specific status of Psammophylax ocellatus ( Branch et al. 2019) , the specimen sent by Bocage to the British Museum remains among the few historical records of the species from Cunene Province.