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194 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

IGUANA
Iguana, Laurenti.

1. Iguana rhinolophus.
Iguana rhinolophus, Wiegm. Herp. Mex. p. 44; Dum. & Bibr.

Erp. Gén. iv. p. 207; Tyler, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, t. 3
(Metopoceros cornutus); Cope, Proc. Ac. N. Sc. Phil.
1862, p. 356; Sumichrast, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1864,
xiii. p. 500; Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 134; Cope,
Journ. Ac. N. Sc. Phil. viii. 1876, p. 124.

Hab. MEXICO, Mazatlan and Presidio (Forrer), Cordova (Sallé),
Tehuantepec and Rio Coazacoalcos (Sumichrast), Cozumel
Island on the coast of Yucatan (G. F. Gaumer); GUATEMALA,
Chiapam (Salvin); COSTA RICA (Cope); PANAMA (Brit.
Mus.), Darien, R. Truando (Schott).

“Iguana verde” of the Creoles; “Guchachi-guëla” of the
Zapotec Indians.

This is the northern or Central-American race of the
South-American I. tuberculata; it does not seem to extend south-
wards beyond the Isthmus of Darien, but occurs also in the
island of Santa Lucia and probably other parts of the West
Indies.

2. Iguana tuberculata.
Iguana tuberculata, Laur. Syn. Rept. p. 49.

Hab. GUATEMALA (Salvin); HONDURAS (Brit. Mus.); NICARAGUA

(Brit. Mus.); PANAMA (Dow), Darien (Schott).—Generally
distributed over the northern parts of SOUTH AMERICA and
BRAZIL; occurring also in many West-Indian Islands.

CTENOSAURA
Ctenosaura, Wiegmann, Isis, 1828, p. 371.

1. Ctenosaura acanthura.
Lacerta acanthura, Shaw, Zool. ii. 1802, p. 216.
Cyclura teres, Harlan, Journ. Ac. Sc. Phil. 1825, p. 246, t. 16.

Ctenosaura cycluroides, Wiegm. Isis, 1828, p. 371; Bocourt, Miss.
Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 143 (part.); Sumichrast, Bull. Soc.
Zool. Fr. v. 1880, p. 175.

Ctenosaura shawii, Gray, Wiegm.
Cyclura pectinata, Wiegm. Herpet. Mex. p. 42, t. 2; Dum. &

Bibr. Erp. Gén. iv, p. 221.
Cyclura denticulata, Wiegm. l. c. p. 43, t. 3.
Cyclura articulata, Wiegm. l. c.
Cyclura acanthura, Sumichrast, Arch. Sc. Phys. et Nat. xix. 1864,

p. 49; Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1864, xiii. p. 500.
Ctenosaura acanthura, Gray, Cat. Liz. p. 191; Cope, Proc. Ac.

Nat. Sc. Phil. xviii. p. 124; Bocourt, Le Naturaliste,
1882, p. 47; Boul. Cat. Liz. ii. p. 195, varr. A, B, D.

Ctenosaura pectinata, Gray, Cat. Liz. p. 191; ?Cope, Proc. Ac.
Nat. Sc. Phil. xviii. p. 124; and Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. xxii.
1885, p. 388; Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 140, and
Le Naturaliste, 1882, p. 47; Sumichrast, Bull. Soc. Zool.
v. 1880, p. 174.

Ctenosaura teres, Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 142, and Le
Naturaliste, 1882, p. 47.

Ctenosaura multispinis, brevirostris, and teres, Cope, Proc. Am.
Phil. Soc. 1886, p. 266.

Hab. NORTH AMERICA, California.—MEXICO, Tres Marias Is.,
Presidio, Mazatlan, Cuidad, and Ventanas (Forrer), Tierra
Colorado in Guerrero (H. H. Smith), Colima (Dugès, in
mus. Paris; U.S. Nat. Mus.), Putla (Boucard), Tehuantepec
(Sumichrast), Tampico (W. B. Richardson), Vera Cruz (Sallé;
Méhédin, in mus. Paris), Yucatan, Cozumel I. (Cope).

H I S T O R I C A L  P E R S E C T I V E

Albert C. L. G. Günther
Biologia Centrali-Americana

Reptilia and Batrachia1

On Iguana and Ctenosaura

1 Reprinted in 1987 by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and
Reptiles (Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology) in cooperation with
Comité Herpetológico Nacional (México).

Editors’ Note.—Usually, we have chosen as featured historical
works narrative pieces that lend insight into language as well as
the state of knowledge applicable when the chosen article was
written. The piece featured in this issue is quite different. Instead
of a narrative, this piece by Albert Günther is indicative of the
sometimes massive works that documented results of extensive
expeditions and simultaneously summarized the knowledge avail-
able at the time. Although much less interesting to peruse, these
types of publications allow us to recreate the historical events that
lead to the present day and often include references to the works
of authors that might otherwise be overlooked and forgotten.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 195HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

“Iguana negra” of the Creoles; “Guchachi-chévé” of the
Zapotec Indians.

Tail subcylindrical; the spines of the broad rings moderately
developed, the broad rings of the anterior verticelli separated by
three or two narrow rings, rarely by one. Dorsal crest generally
interrupted in the sacral region; if continuous, the continuity is
effected merely by the low and somewhat enlarged scales of the

median series. Scales of the calf of the leg very small. The col-
oration varies and changes with age. The ground-colour of the
young is generally green, marbled with darker on the back, the
dark markings forming more or less distinct, irregular cross
bands, which are sometimes confluent, sometimes spotted with
black, and about seven or eight in number on the back. With
age the dark colour becomes more diffused and irregularly dis-
tributed over the body, at places entirely suppressing the ground-
colour, which itself assumes a more olive tinge or changes into
yellowish. Specimens from Tampico are uniform black when
adult, and of a greenish-olive when young.

One of the most monumental biological publications of all
time is the 67-volume Biologia Centrali-Americana, subtitled

“Contributions to the Knowledge of the Fauna and Flora of
Mexico and Central America.” Edited by the eminent British nat-
uralists Osbert Salvin and Frederick DuCane Godman, the series
appeared in parts, with 1677 plates (more than 900 colored), at
irregular intervals, often monthly, over a period of 37 years, 1879
to 1915. It was actually more nearly a synopsis of the entire biota,
as then known, of Middle America — México (excluding Baja
California) through Panamá — written by numerous specialists,
although “certain groups, such as the Crustacea and most of the
lower invertebrates, were never treated owing to a lack of mate-
rial, while a number of groups of insect were omitted because no
workers could be found to undertake them …”

Selander and Vaurie. 1962. 
Amer. Mus. Novit. 2099:1–70.

That the whole work was finished was due to the tenacity of pur-
pose and administrative skill of Godman and the editorial assis-
tance of George Charles Champion, a beetle specialist, for Salvin,
the other editor, died June 1, 1898, at the age of 63, having been
born February 25, 1835, in Elmhurst, Finchley, England. From
1898 on, all responsibility for Biologia Centrali-Americana and for
the joint Salvin-Godman collection fell to Godman. He was then
64, having been born January 15, 1834, in Park Hatch, Surrey,
England. Despite advancing years and ill health, he managed to
complete the monumental work in all its parts, although the last,
introductory volume of 1915 did not do justice to the overall the-
oretical analysis that had at one time been the editors’ hope. The
coverage of the work was admittedly not complete, but what was
started was brought to a most admirable conclusion. A few years
later, on February 19, 1919, Godman died, at the age of 85.

Hobart M. Smith

A  B R I E F  H I S T O R Y  O F  T H E  
B I O L O G I A  C E N T R A L I - A M E R I C A N A …



196 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005

I have examined a great number of specimens, which I am
unable to divide into species, although they by no means agree
with one another in every point. The development of the crest,
which by some authors has been used as a specific character,
depends partly on age, partly on sex. The largest specimens I
have seen, males as well as females, are thirty inches long, of
which the tail takes two thirds. Shaw’s type is still preserved in
the British Museum, and said to be from California; also
Bocourt has examined specimens from that country.

2. Ctenosaura completa. (Tabb. XXIX., XXX.)
Ctenosaura cycluroides, part., Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 143.
Ctenosaura completa, Bocourt, l. c. p. 145, and Le Naturaliste,

1882, p. 47; Cope, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 1886, p. 268.
Ctenosaura acanthura, var. C, Boul. Cat. Liz. ii. p. 197.

Hab. MEXICO, Yucatan and Cozumel I. (Cope), Mugeres I. (G.
F. Gaumer); BRITISH HONDURAS, Belize (Dyson);
GUATEMALA, Peten (Morelet), Chiapam (Salvin);
HONDURAS (Mus. Brit., Bocourt), Bonacca I. (G. F.
Gaumer); SALVADOR, La Union (Bocourt).

Tail subcylindrical; the spines of the tail very prominent
and acute in the adult male, the scutes of the narrow rings being
also strongly armed. Dorsal crest not interrupted in the sacral
region, the continuity being effected by short lobes in the adult
male, and by depressed scales in females and young. Scales of the
calf of the leg larger than in C. acanthura. Greenish or greenish-
olive, with six black cross-bands on the back, of which the ante-
rior is the least developed, and, like the following, more or less
distinctly  paired; in old specimens these bands are narrower and
more or less broken up, and the anterior may disappear alto-
gether.

Of this species I have seen nine specimens — two adult
males and several young from Honduras, an adult female and
young from Belize, and an adult female from Guatemala. It
grows to the same size as C. acanthura, from which
it is not easily distinguished.

Tab. XXIX. represents a male from Bonacca Island, of half
the natural size, with separate view of a part of the tail; Tab.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

B I B L I O G R A P H I C
I N F O R M A T I O N

Günther’s volume on amphibians and reptiles is one of the
most important publications on the herpetology of

Middle America and it is still in active use, yet it is not widely
available. The original edition consisted of probably no more
than 300 copies, according to the best estimates of several nat-
ural history booksellers, and is regarded by them as one of the
scarcest volumes in the entire Biologia Centrali-Americana series.
As Hobart Smith notes in his introduction [to the SSAR
Facsimile Reprint], the herpetology volume cost the equivalent
of about US$37 in 1902 when the volume had just been com-
pleted, a very considerable sum of money at the time. In recent
years copies have sold for as much as $1000 on the second-
hand market, when they can be found at all.

Dates of Publication. Günther’s book was issued over the
period 1885 to 1902 and at the foot of the first page of each
signature the date of publication is given. Since the plates did
not always accompany the corresponding text, these cannot be
dated so easily. Fortunately, however, such details are recorded
on the wrappers in which the original parts were published, and
a copy of the Biologia with all of the wrappers intact exists in
the Zoology Library of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.),
London, …

Kraig Adler, Editor
5 February 1987



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 197HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

XXX. a female from Chiapam, of the natural size, also the inner
side of the calf of the leg, to show the size of the scales.

3. Ctenosaura quinquecarinata.
Cyclura quinquecarinata, Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 59; Cope, Proc.

Am. Phil. Soc. xi. 1871, p. 161.
Enyaliosaurus quinquecarinatus, Gray, Cat. Liz. p. 192.
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata, Sumichrast, Bibl. Univ. et Rev.

Suisse, 1873, p. 259; and Bull. Soc. Zool. v. 1880, p. 175.

Hab. MEXICO, Oaxaca (Boucard), Tehuantepec (Sumichrast);
HONDURAS (Mus. Brit.).

Tail much thickened and depressed near its base, verticil-
lated, each verticellus formed by a ring of large strongly armed
scutes, and by a ring of much narrower and unarmed scutes. The
armature is confined to the upper and lateral surfaces of the tail,
the lower side being comparatively smooth. The strongest spines
are arranged in one median, and two or three lateral series.

Dorsal crest very low, obsolete in the sacral region. Upper parts
and throat yellowish, marbled with black or brown.

4. Ctenosaura defensor.
Cachryx defensor, Cope, Proc. Ac. N. Sc. Phil. xviii. p. 124; Proc.
Am. Phil. Soc. 1869, p. 169, t. 10; Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex.,
Rept. p. 143, t. 17 bis. figg. 12, 12a.

Hab. MEXICO, Yucatan (A. Schott, U.S. Nat. Mus.).

Extralimital are the following species: —
1. Iguana acanthura, Blainville, = Cyclura acanthura, Dum.

& Bibr., = Cyclura hemilopha, Cope, Boulenger, = Ctenosaura
acanthura, Bocourt (Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 138), = Ctenosaura
interrupta, Bocourt (Le Naturaliste, 1882, p. 47). — Lower
California.

2. Ctenosaura erythromelas, Boul. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, p.
241, t. 23; Cachryx erythromelas, Cope, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus.
1886, p. 437. — Probably Lower California.

Albert Günther was born in 1830 in Esslingen, Württemberg
(Germany). He entered the theological school at the

University of Tübingen in 1847 and took holy orders in the
Lutheran Church in 1851, although he subsequently turned to
medical studies because of a longstanding interest in natural his-
tory and the influence of several professors. He received a doctor-
ate in philosophy and arts in 1853 and went on to medical school,
initially in Berlin, before teaching in Bonn, and finally complet-
ing his medical degree in Tübingen in 1857.

That same year, Günther offered his services to John E.
Gray, Keeper of the Zoology Department at the British Museum,
and was hired to catalogue the museum’s snake collection, then
the frogs, and finally the fishes, which occupied him for the rest
of his life. Günther took over the Keeper’s position from Gray in
1875 and, like Gray before him, aggressively built the collection,
taking advantage of opportunities presented as the British Empire
expanded. In 1879, he hired Georges Boulenger and placed him
in charger of lower vertebrates, assuring that the long tradition of
herpetological research at the British Museum would continue.

Günther founded Zoological Record in 1865, and it is still
today the most complete index of the world’s zoological literature.
Günther’s greatest zoological discovery occurred in 1867, when
he announced the recognition that Sphenodon of New Zealand
was not a lizard but the sole living representative of the order
Rhynchocephalia. In addition, he published Reptiles of British
India (1864), The Gigantic Land-Tortoises (Living and Extinct)
(1877 [1878]), and the herpetological volume in the series
Biologia Centrali-Americana (1885–1902). Günther’s work on
lower vertebrates was regularly cited by Charles Darwin in Descent
of Man (1871), in which he depended heavily on Günther for his

information about sexual characters. In addition to the books,
Günther published some 200 papers on herpetology, with a geo-
graphic emphasis on Australia, Africa, and Asia. Günther retired
in 1895 and died at Kew, London in 1914.

B I O G R A P H I C A L  S K E T C H

Albert C. L. G. Günther (1830–1914)1

Albert C. L. G. Günther in about 1900. Photograph courtesy of
Kraig Adler and the British Museum (Natural History) Library.

1 Source: Adler, K. 1989. Herpetologists of the past, pp. 5–141.
In K. Adler (ed.), Contributions to the History of Herpetology.
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles,
Contributions to Herpetology, vol. 5. Ithaca, New York.




