INTRODUCTION The genus Agama Daudin, 1802 is one of the most wide- ly distributed lizard genera within Africa, although the re- lationships between the species in the genus are still poor- ly known. Agama is a highly taxonomically complex genus and most of the taxa are very similar and highly variable in pholidosis and only identifiable by the nuptial colouration of males (MCLACHLAN 1981, JACOBSEN 1992, WAGNER 2007). Therefore, it is often not possible to as- sign a single specimen with colouration lacking to a par- ticular species or subspecies. This situation causes prob- lems in the determination of type material to assess the validity of the different taxa. Thus, in many species and subspecies validity is doubtful (e.g., Agama bocourti Rochebrune, 1884; Agama cornii Scortecci, 1928; A. pic- ticauda Peters, 1877; A. congica Peters, 1877). Past gener- ic reviews have only been attempted for some species groups (BOULENGER & POWER 1921, GRANDISON 1956, 1968) and most workers have considered it point- less to designate lecto- or neotypes to stabilize the nomen- clature of the taxa. As an example, GRANDISON (1968) des- ignated a lectotype of Agama benueensis Monard, 1951 (today recognized as a subspecies of Agama doriae Boulenger, 1885; see MOODY & BÖHME 1984), thereby sta- bilizing another Agama species because several individ- uals of the type series were identified as A. paragama Grandison, 1968. However, the situation has changed and several authors are now working on a broad scale phyloge- ny of the entire genus (WAGNER & LEACHÉ, own data). For this analysis it is essential to clarify the taxonomic status of Agama agama (Linnaeus, 1758) because many taxa are assigned to this species as synonyms or subspecies. Even in recent years several former subspecies of A. agama have Abstract. Herein we present our strategy to preserve the nomenclatural stability of the widespread and common Afrotropical lizard Agama agama (Linnaeus, 1758). We recognized several proposed syntypes, belonging to a va- riety of species, i.e., Agama agama, Agama atra and Tropidurus plica. But we have shown that these specimens do not belong to the type material. However, if they were included in the type material the selection of the e.g. American syntype, Tropidurus plica – a tropidurine iguanid, as lectotype would result in taxonomic chaos, as Aga- ma agama is an African species and includes in its synonymy the type species of the type genus of the family Agamidae. The illustrated types in SEBA (1734) are recognized by us as a variety of agamid lizards with a type lo- cality encompassing the New and the Old World and not simply ‘America’, as given by LINNAEUS. Morphologically, Agama agama is highly variable making it impossible to assign the syntype that agrees with the current concept of Agama agama to a geographic population, particularly as the only character, viz. the colour pat- tern, is no longer discernible in this specimen. This endangers the stability of the known subspecies of Agama aga- ma. We therefore designate a neotype for Lacerta agama Linnaeus, 1758 herein. Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; neotype; Squamata; Agamidae; Agama agama; African rainbow lizard; type locality; Africa. Studies on African Agama V. On the origin of Lacerta agama Linnaeus, 1758 (Squamata: Agamidae) Philipp WAGNER 1* , Thomas M. WILMS 2 , Aaron BAUER 3 & Wolfgang BÖHME 1 1 Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum A. Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany philipp.wagner.zfmk@uni-bonn.de; w.boehme@uni-bonn.de 2 Zoologischer Garten Frankfurt, Bernhard-Grzimek-Allee 1, D-60316 Frankfurt thomas.wilms@stadt-frankfurt.de 3 Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, US * corresponding author Bonner zoologische Beiträge Band 56 Heft 4 Seiten 215–223 Bonn, November 2009