The extensive colonial material in Berlin and Hamburg, which was particularly rich in reed frogs, enabled Tornier to compile an overview of the ”Farbkleid der Rappienhaut“ ( Tornier 1896, plate 4, reproduced here in Fig. Johann Georg Pfeffer (1854–1931) from Hamburg, who had originally been assigned this task, resigned for health reasons ( Tornier 1896, see also remarks on H. Stuhlmann’s collections at the Museum Hamburg. In addition to the Berlin collection, he also had access to F. Īt the end of the 19 th century, Gustav Tornier (1859–1938), at the time curator of the amphibian and reptile collection at the ZMB, took over the task of a systematic analysis of the herpetological material collected from colonial German East Africa. 10.3897/zse.97.68000.figure1 5214851 E642AE71-2313-5FDC-9C25-8BC04AA20B8F Figure 1.Įxamplary page from the first numerical inventory catalogue of the herpetological collection at ZMB, with entries of material collected by F. Adametz (1877– year of death unknown), E. Important collectors which need to be mentioned in this context are K. Hildebrandt’s Expeditions to East Africa (1873–77), the “Emin Pasha Expedition” (1890–92), the “Togo–Hinterland–Expedition” (1894–95), the “Nyassa–See- und Kinga–Gebirgs–Expedition” (1898–99), the “Kunene–Sambesi–Expedition” (1899–1900), the “German–French Border Expedition” (1901–02), the “Lübecker Pangwe–Expedition” (1907–09), and the “Lagone–Pama–Expedition” (1912–13). However, most hyperoliid frogs now present in ZMB were collected during the period from 1873 to 1918 in Germany’s African colonial territories, and during further expeditions to other regions of the African continent, such as the “Loango–Expedition” (1873–76), J. Wilhelm Peters undertook the first scientific work on the Berlin Hyperolius material based on his own collections from Mozambique and specimens purchased from the aforementioned collectors ( Peters 1854, 1867, 1875, 1876, 1877a, 1878, 1882a, b). Barbosa du Bocage (1823–1907) from Lisbon. de Oliveira Anchieta (1832–1897) from Angola were received in exchange with J. Several objects from the collection of J. von der Decken (1833–1865) in East Africa and by H. The first mention of Hyperolius species from the ZMB was in the catalogue published by Lichtenstein and Martens (1856: 36) “Nomenclator Reptilium et Amphibium Musei Zoologici Berolinensis”.ĭuring the second half of the 19 th century, the collection was enriched by material collected, for example, by R. In March 1849, the Leiden Museum probably exchanged Pel’s specimens together with other herpetological and ichthyologcial objects with the Zoologisches Museum Berlin (Lichtenstein “Eingangsjournal ZMB”). Pel, who stayed in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), from March to April 1841, March 1842 to December 1843, in January 1844, and from September 1847 to November 1850, collected natural history objects for the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden ( Holthuis 1968). picturatus Peters, 1875 ( ZMB 3063, 76991–76994) collected at “Boutre” by the zoologist and colonial administrator of the Dutch Gold Coast, H. Hyperolius variegatus collected first in June 1843 on the Cabaceira Peninsula (see below and Peters 1882b) and five syntypes of H. Peters (1815–1883) from his Mozambican collections, i.e. Other old representatives of reed frogs are the species described by W.

These specimens either were part of a shipment by Krebs containing 90 “Amphibien”, in addition to other natural history specimens, and arrived at the museum on 21 June 1830, or they were acquired by the Zoologisches Museum Berlin from Krebs’ collections, auctioned after that date until April 1840 (Lichtenstein “Eingangsjournal ZMB”, see also Bauer 2000). Krebs (1792–1844), are two Hyperolius horstockii ( ZMB 3061) from the “Cap”. The oldest specimens from this family present in the collection are from South Africa. These specimens have been used by various authors as a basis for 145 first descriptions, reflecting several periods of research on reed frogs by staff herpetologists and external researchers associated with the ZMB collection. One of the largest and most diverse families in the collection is the African frog family Hyperoliidae with approximately 3,500 wet preserved specimens, including about 860 type specimens.

The amphibian collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin ( ZMB) is one of the richest in the world, comprising about 60,000 specimens of ca.

Dr richard abriss