Abstract
Abstract: The zoologist Dr. José Santiago Lima-Verde (1945-2019) made a number of major contributions to the field of animal biology in the northeastern Brazil, in particular through his research with snakes. While employed as a professor at Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró, currently the Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, Prof. Lima-Verde established a herpetological collection which remained forgotten for a number of decades. In the present study, we describe the revitalization of this collection, which included the updating of the identification of the species and the compilation of the metadata on the collection, which is now named the Coleção Herpetológica Lima-Verde. We catalogued 80 specimens representing 30 species, including 23 species of snakes, five lizards, and two amphisbaenians. One third (30%) of the specimens had information on dates and sites, with the majority of these specimens being collected in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte during the 1970's. We also catalogued 315 eggs of seven snake species, from 22 clutches laid in captivity. The collection presents unpublished data and will constitute a reference for future herpetological research on the species found in western region of State of Rio Grande do Norte. Our findings reinforce the importance of zoological collections for the understanding of patterns of biodiversity, and we would recommend the creation of more regional scientific collections and the broader recognition of their value as a basic source of biological data.
Highlights
Zoological collections provide a wealth of information on wild animals, ranging from specimens to samples of tissues, photographs, and recordings of vocalizations (Franco 2002, Vivo et al 2014)
Some of Dr Lima-Verde’s most important contributions on the reptilian fauna of the Caatinga of Rio Grande do Norte were the study “Fisioecologia e etologia de algumas serpentes da Chapada do Apodi” (Lima-Verde 1976), in which he described the ecology and behavior of 20 species, and the description of the snake Erythrolamprus mossoroensis (Hoge & Lima-Verde, 1972), whose type-locality is the municipality of Mossoró (Hoge & Lima-Verde 1972)
We retrieved the specimens collected by Dr Lima-Verde, which had been left in the annex of the Laboratório Didático de Zoologia from the UFERSA, and transferred them to the Laboratório de Ecologia e Comportamento Animal (LECA)
Summary
Zoological collections provide a wealth of information on wild animals, ranging from specimens (complete or partial) to samples of tissues, photographs, and recordings of vocalizations (Franco 2002, Vivo et al 2014) These collections support the continuous and systematic accumulation of biological data, which provide important insights into the present and past configuration of a region’s fauna (Marinoni & Peixoto 2010, Zaher & Young 2003). The zoologist Dr José Santiago Lima-Verde (1945-2019) was one of the principal scientists responsible for the late advances in herpetological research in the Northeast region of Brazil in the second half of the 20th Century (Fernandes-Ferreira et al 2014) His legacy includes the first records of a number of Amazonian reptiles in the semi-arid Caatinga domain, such as the Imantodes cenchoa (Linnaeus, 1758) and Mastigodryas boddaerti (Sentzen, 1796) (Nascimento & Lima-Verde, 1989), as well as descriptions of new species, including the lizard, Colobosauroides cearensis Cunha, Lima-Verde & Lima, 1991, and the caecilian, Chthonerpeton arii Cascon & Lima-Verde, 1994. Some of Dr Lima-Verde’s most important contributions on the reptilian fauna of the Caatinga of Rio Grande do Norte were the study “Fisioecologia e etologia de algumas serpentes da Chapada do Apodi” (Lima-Verde 1976), in which he described the ecology and behavior of 20 species, and the description of the snake Erythrolamprus mossoroensis (Hoge & Lima-Verde, 1972), whose type-locality is the municipality of Mossoró (Hoge & Lima-Verde 1972)
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