SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History

2000 ZWEIFEL: PARTITION OF SPHENOPHRYNE
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used in systematics studies—change with
growth. The degree and direction of change
varies not only interspecifically, but also with
the body part being considered. By using ratios
of adults only, the ranges of variation
can often be considerably reduced, leading to
less overlap among species and more utility
in keying. Ontogenetic change in proportions
is discussed under Morphology.
LOCALITY RECORDS
A variety of circumstances hamper, even
frustrate, fixing of localities of collection in
New Guinea. Even in comparatively recently
it has been difficult for field workers remote
from towns or the few roads to pinpoint their
location. Even as comprehensive maps become
available (especially for Papua New
Guinea), and with the increasing use of Geographic
Positioning System technology, there
remains a legacy of politically based and other
sources of confusion in museum catalogs
and published papers.
IRIAN JAYA: From the 1800s until 1963, the
western half of New Guinea was under
Dutch control; ‘‘Netherlands New Guinea’’
and ‘‘Dutch New Guinea’’ were the commonly
used names. Following the Indonesian
assumption of control, the name ‘‘Irian Barat’’
saw some usage (at least as late as 1967).
This was followed by ‘‘Irian Jaya,’’ as a
Province of Indonesia. Quite recently the
name was changed again to ‘‘Papua Barat’’
(or West Papua). In the present work I continue
to use the more familiar Irian Jaya. Administrative
subdivisions of Irian Jaya exist
but rarely appear in museum records. Many
geographic names established under Dutch
governance have been replaced by Indonesian
ones. For example, the principal city
was Hollandia, then Sukarnapura, then Jayapura,
now Port Numbai.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The eastern half of
New Guinea has had a more complicated
political history as well as much more biological
collecting activity than has Irian
Jaya. The first administrative organization
of the northern part was by Germany in
1884 as Kaiser Wilhelmsland. This also included
islands to the north and east—Neu
Pommern (New Britain), Neu Mecklenburg
(New Ireland), and many smaller islands.
German New Guinea and Northeast New
Guinea are other names often encountered
in the literature and in museum records.
Australia occupied Kaiser Wilhelmsland in
1914, and in 1920 the League of Nations
mandated administrative control of the area
to Australia as the Trust Territory of New
Guinea.
The southern part of Papua New Guinea
was originally (1888) British New Guinea;
in 1906 it was turned over to Australian administration
and renamed Papua, later called
the Territory of Papua but governed separately
from the Territory of New Guinea.
Governmental evolution subsequent to
World War II produced the combined Territory
of Papua New Guinea and then (1975)
the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.
The territories of Papua and New Guinea
were subdivided into administrative districts
that, with nationhood, were redesignated as
provinces. Many of these did not long retain
their original integrity. New provinces were
carved out of old, boundaries were adjusted,
provinces were renamed, and alternate spellings
were used. Even names used by the provincial
and central governments disagree in
some instances.
For Papua New Guinea, I have standardized
province records according to the names