Abstract
Walter Bruno Eggert described nine species and fifteen subspecies of the oxudercine genus Periophthalmus in 1929 and 1935. His descriptions were based primarily on specimens collected by Jürgen Wilhelm Harms during several expeditions to South-east Asia and Japan. The whereabouts of many of the type specimens were unknown, and were presumed destroyed during World War II. We recently rediscovered the type material for six species and ten subspecies in the collection of the Phyletic Museum in Jena, Germany. We provide detailed accounts of this material and the historical figures involved in safeguarding them during the tumultuous war years.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the two anonymous reviewers for the suggested edits to the original manuscript. We are grateful to Professors Fischer, Olsson, and Beutel from Jena who supported our investigations. We thank Dietrich von Knorre and Matthias Krüger for sharing their extensive knowledge on the collections at PMJ. The manuscript greatly benefited from the incorporation of comments and suggestions from Lynne Parenti and Edward Murdy. We thank the personnel of the archives of the Eberhard-Karls-University for locating the file of Bruno Eggert (UAT126/125), as well as Jeffrey Clayton at the Smithsonian Institution for logistic help, and Ronald de Ruiter for information on ZMA 113.179. Sandra Raredon skillfully photographed Periophthalmus harmsi. ZJ acknowledges support from the Systematic Research Fund from the Systematics Association, and Leonard P. Schultz Fund from the Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. This paper is contribution number 3555 of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary.
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Konstantinidis, P., Jaafar, Z., Warth, P. et al. Rediscovery of oxudercine type specimens (Teleostei: Gobiidae) assumed destroyed during World War II. Ichthyol Res 64, 123–130 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-016-0532-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-016-0532-9