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Podarcis tiliguertais a lacertid lizard endemic to Corsica, Sardinia and many of their satellite islands. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships among the various island populations using morphological characters, to assess the usefulness of these characters in phylogenetic studies, and to test the concordance of morphologi- cal and earliergenetical studies. Snout-vent length and 11 pholidotic characters have been studied on 2783 specimens from localities on the two main islands and the majority of theirrespective satellite islands. Data formales and females are analyzed separately using uni- and multivariate statistical methods; the results are compared to previous genetical analyses. With few exceptions, the two populations, one on Corsica, the second on Sardinia (and theirsatellite islands), are readily distinguish- able. We argue that the few exceptions may be due to a foundereffect and/orgenet- ic drift. The male sample from northern Corsica and both sex samples from southern Corsica present unresolved problems because they group with the Sardinian clade. Ourresults, forthe most part, are in accord with those obtained with genetical analy- ses, but furtherstudies are needed to clarify the unresolved questions.

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The birth and development of the herpetology collection of theMuseo di Storia Naturale of the University of Florence are described. Early specimens, mainly turtles’ shells, date from the eighteenth century and are no longer found in the museum. At present the collection includes about 26,500 amphibians and 40,000 reptiles; it mostly increased at the end of 1800, due to Enrico Hillyer Giglioli’s work, and in the second part of the twentieth century, as a result of the studies of Benedetto Lanza and his colleagues. The most important specimens of the typical material are also mentioned.