The history of the Illyrian Nose-horned Viper, Vipera ammodytes illyrica (Laurenti, 1768), with designation of a neotype

Krecsák et al. (2024) recently restricted the type locality of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758) to Belgrad Forest (Belgrad Ormanı), Belgrad village, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Türkiye. This meant that the name of the nominotypical subspecies must be applied to populations formerly known as V. a. montandoni Boulenger, 1904 that inhabit southern Albania, northern Greece, most of Bulgaria (except the northwestern part), eastern Romania, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the southernmost part of Serbia. As a consequence, the name V. a. illyrica (Laurenti, 1768) is valid for the Nose-horned Viper populations from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, northern Albania, Serbia (except the southernmost part), as well as the northwestern part of Bulgaria. In this paper we evaluate the history of V. a. illyrica, assess the status of type material, provide a complete list of synonyms and chresonyms, and designate as the neotype the specimen NHMW 25274:6 collected at Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, NE Italy.