CUMV Amphibian and Reptile Collection

Brief description

The CUMV Amphibian & Reptile Collection became one of the leading university based herp collections in North America during the first half of this century, largely because of the efforts of Professor Albert Hazen Wright and his wife, Anna Allen Wright. The major strengths of the collection, amphibians from the southeastern United States and both reptiles and amphibians from the Northeast, reflects the intensive collection by the Wrights. Much of the material collected by the Wrights in New York and Georgia is not duplicated elsewhere. The last 15 years have been seen important acquisitions for the collection. To complement our traditional strength in North American taxa, we have made a concerted effort to obtain foreign material, especially synoptic series representing geographic areas. Through collecting, exchanges and acquisition of other various collections we now have good representation of Costa Rican viperids, lizards from Western and South Australia, amphibians and reptiles from Puerto Rico, snakes and lizards from Mexico, and a more representative collection of African and European species.