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.
