The amphibian collections of the Zoological Museum of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

Abstract

Zoological collections concentrated in museums play an important role in the study of amphibians, their distribution and conservation. In Lviv, the zoological collection was formed at the Lviv University before 1784. Unfortunately, detailed descriptions of this collection have not been preserved. Currently, the oldest part of the amphibian collection housed at the Zoological Museum of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv consists of exhibited specimens, which were collected from different parts of the world during the second part of the 19th century. Materials stored in the scientific collections started to be collected somewhat later, firs as duplicates of the main, exhibited specimens in case of their loss or colour fading, and only in the 1990s as a scientific material. In total, the amphibian collection comprises almost 600 specimens housed as more than 360 storage units that belong to more than 65 species of the world’s fauna from 20 families and 2 orders: Caudata (22 species) and Anura (44 species). The amphibian collection is mostly represented by wet specimens fixed with formalin or alcohol and only few specimens are preserved as mummies. Most of the exhibits that represent the fauna of Ukraine were collected in the past 15–20 years in Lviv, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Kherson, and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine. The most valuable specimens in the museum’s amphibian collections are those of 10 species that have high conservation status according the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2022-2: Atelopus ignescens, Ranodon sibiricus, Ambystoma mexicanum, Andrias japonicus, Proteus anguinus, Cynops ensicauda, Euproctus platycephalus, Calyptocephalella gayi, Adenomus kelaartii, and Pleurodeles waltl. Geographically, the collection specimens came from the territory of five continents and no less than 21 countries of the world, although it represents only 0.7% of the world’s amphibian diversity. Sixty-three specimens of seven species listed in the Red List of Ukraine (2021) are preserved in the museum collections, including Salamandra salamandra, Triturus cristatus, Ichthyosaura alpestris, Lissotriton montandoni, Epidalea calamita, Bombina variegata, and Rana dalmatina.

Keywords

• amphibian collections
• conservation status
• natural history museums
• national university of lviv