Cape Verde Herpetological Collection - IICT

Study Extent

The study covers part of Cape Verde Islands, which includes 7 islands (Brava, Fogo, Maio, Santiago, Santo Antão, São Nicolau and São Vicente) and two islets (Branco and Raso). The temporal distribution is mainly concentrated between the 1969 and 1972.

Sampling

The majority of the records of this dataset result from the Missões Zoológicas do Ultramar carried out by the former Junta de Investigação do Ultramar. Only a small part of these specimens were previously studied and published (Pinheiro 1989).

Quality Control

Information from each specimen was catalogued in an Excel spreadsheet, involving two steps: i) digitization of specimen records; and ii) taxonomic revision and data checking. Nomenclature was checked through available literature (Arnold et al. 2008; Miralles et al. 2010; Vasconcelos et al. 2012), The Reptile Database [http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/], and the Amphibia Species of the World v.6.0 [http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/]. Georeferencing followed the recommendations by Chapman and Wieczorek (2006), including the determination of uncertainty of coordinates, in particular when insufficient information was available from specimens’ records and labels to attribute a specific locality (e.g. names of riversides, properties, etc.).

Method steps

1. The herpetological collections were catalogued using the software Microsoft Excel. We conducted extensive shelf surveys to locate all the remaining Cape Verde specimens of amphibians and reptiles. After locating the specimens, basic curatorial procedures were taken. Each jar was cleaned, and ethanol or formalin was changed to 70% etanol gradually. In certain cases jars were substituted as they were cracked or were otherwise not reliably sealable. All the information linked to the survinving specimens and/or jars were collected, copied, and linked to the specimen. After completion of curatorial activities, each specimen was identified to the species and/or subspecies level. The identification of the specimens was accomplished by consulting the most updated available literature sources and followed the currently accepted nomenclature. Additionally, the specimens’ original information was re-checked at this phase, comparing the label data with surviving original field books and catalgoues, in order to screen for any initial cataloguing errors. The collecting locality for each bibliographic reference was georeferenced using the published Lepidoptera paper from Mendes & Bivar de Sousa (2010). When no data were available in Mendes & Bivar de Sousa (2010), or in the recent publications, we used “GEOLocate online application” (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/) for georeferencing the locality cited . The uncertainty of georeferenced localities was recorded whenever possible. For some records it was not possible to determine the coordinates due to insufficient location information. All coordinates are given in geographic format, decimal degrees, datum WGS 84.

The dataset comprises representatives of 4 families, 4 genus, 17 species and 3 subspecies of Amphibians and Reptiles.

1. Amphibia
   rank: class
2. Reptilia
   rank: class
3. Anura
   rank: order
4. Squamata
   rank: order
5. Bufonidae
   rank: family
6. Scincidae
   rank: family
7. Phyllodactilidae
   rank: family
8. Gekkonidae
   rank: family
9. Sclerophrys
   rank: genus
10. Chioninia
    rank: genus
11. Tarentola
    rank: genus
12. Hemidactylus
    rank: genus
13. Sclerophrys regularis
    rank: species
14. Chioninia delalandii
    rank: species
15. Chioninia fogoensis
    rank: species
16. Chioninia nicolauensis
    rank: species
17. Chioninia strangeri
    rank: species
18. Chioninia vaillantii
    rank: species
19. Hemidactylus angulatus
    rank: species
20. Tarentola bocagei
    rank: species
21. Tarentola caboverdiana
    rank: species
22. Tarentola darwini
    rank: species
23. Tarentola fogoensis
    rank: species
24. Tarentola gigas
    rank: species
25. Tarentola maioensis
    rank: species
26. Tarentola nicolauensis
    rank: species
27. Tarentola raziana
    rank: species
28. Tarentola rudis
    rank: species
29. Tarentola substituta
    rank: species
30. Chioninia spinalis maioensis
    rank: subspecies
31. Tarentola protogigas hartogi
    rank: subspecies
32. Tarentola protogigas protogigas
    rank: subspecies

The Cape Verde Islands