×

We provide a fi rst complete list of the present and lost reptile type material of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM) and discuss various problems involved. The collection currently houses primary types of 184 taxa (128 holotypes, 44 lectotypes, and 12 taxa based on syntype series), 112 of them currently considered valid. Furthermore, 63 taxa are exclusively represented by secondary types (paratypes, paralectotypes). The ZSM collection strongly suffered from losses during World War II. Approximately 90 primary reptile type specimens or primary type series are considered to be destroyed during that time. The historical focus of the collection is the South American region. This is primarily based on material collected by Spix and Martius during their expedition to Brazil from 1817 to 1820. Primary types of 83 reptile taxa were collected during this expedition – approximately half of them described by J. G. Wagler – but currently specimens of only 53 taxa are still present in Munich. Subsequently, herpetological research in South America was continued during the fi rst half of the 20th Century by L. Müller und W. Hellmich, who deposited primary type material of 95 reptile taxa (49 from South America, among them 26 of the iguanid genus Liolaemus) in the ZSM, 47 of them still represented by primary types. Another geographical focus of the reptile type collection is the Mediterranean area, the Macaronesian region and the Middle East with a total of 46 extant primary types. Herpetological research in this area dates back to descriptions by G. Jan in 1863 and was continued by L. Müller, H. H. Schleich, A. Beutler, and especially J. F. Schmidtler and their respective collaborators.