Rediscovering a forgotten scientific collection in the Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil: The herpetological collection of the zoologist José Santiago Lima-Verde

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 The collection presents unpublished data and will constitute a reference for future herpetological research on the species found in western region of State of Rio Grande do Norte.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.

Species richness and distribution patterns of the snake fauna of Rio Grande do Norte state, northeastern Brazil

“…Snakes have also been part of local herpetofaunal inventories (Lima-Verde 1971, 1976, Sales et al 2009, Caldas et al 2016, Calixto & Morato 2017, Coelho-Lima et al 2020, and conservation inquiries such as how forest fragment characteristics (e.g., area, shape, isolation and matrix quality) affected reptiles in RN's Atlantic Forest (Lion et al 2016). Finally, records of snakes for RN are mostly contained in broad natural history compilations (Schmidt & Inger 1951, Guedes et al 2014a and taxonomic reviews (Thomas unpublished data, Myers & Cadle 1994, Arredondo unpublished data, Fernandes & Hamdan 2014, Pires et al 2014, Montingelli et al 2019.…”