Catalogue of type specimens deposited in the Herpetology Collection of the Natural History Museum Gustavo Orcés V. at Escuela Politécnica Nacional (Ecuador)

Abstract Background The Herpetology Collection of the Natural History Museum Gustavo Orcés V. at Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN-H) in Quito maintains more than sixteen thousand curated specimens and it comprises Ecuador ´s second largest collection of herps. New information The Collection contains 193 type specimens: 14 holotypes, 34 paratopotypes and 145 paratypes, which correspond to 10 families, 17 genera and 32 species. The collection of type specimens is particularly important in the genera Atelopus and Pristimantis in amphibians and the genera Atractus and Enyaloides in reptiles. An assessment of the geographic distribution showed that collection sites of type specimens are clustered towards the south of Ecuador in the provinces of Zamora Chinchipe, Morona Santiago and Pastaza in the Amazon Region; and in the provinces of Carchi and Azuay in the Andes. The collection of type specimens dates from 1955 to 2013, comprising an invaluable source of historical biodiversity data.


Introduction
The Natural History Museum Gustavo Orcés V. at Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN) was established as the Museum of Zoology of Escuela Politécnica Nacional in 1946(Ortega et al. 2014. It was founded by Robert Hoffstetter and Gustavo Orcés, with collections made by Franz Spillmann and Manuel Olalla from 1930(Hoffstetter 1952. Since then, until the early 1980s, all the zoological collections in the Museum expanded primarily through contributions from the Olalla brothers and Luis Abuja (Albuja et al. 1980, Albuja 1999. Currently, MEPN houses six biological scientific collections, namely Paleontology, Ictiology, Mastozoology, Ornitology, Invertebrates and Herpetology. The Herpetology Collection of the Natural History Museum Gustavo Orcés at Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN-H), started as a section of the Museum in 1983, with Ana Almendáriz serving as its first curator. Over time, the MEPN-H collection increased through contributions from its former curator , Almendáriz et al. 2017, as well as national and international researchers, students and volunteers. To date, the Herpetology Collection holds 5402 reptile specimens and 10907 amphibian specimens. The first specimen from Ecuador, deposited in MEPN-H, dates back to the 1930s and corresponds to an individual of Siphonops annulatus (Order Gymnophiona).
In 1955, MEPN-H received its first set of type specimens. These initial type specimens consist of paratypes of Holcosus orcesi (Teiidae) and Atractus gaigae (Colubridae), which likely constitute the most ancient reptilian types deposited in an Ecuadorian Natural History Museum. It is noteworthy that, during the 1950s, specimens were acquired by the Museum through various means, including purchases and donations. The MEPN-H holds unique historical biodiversity data, as it also includes some of the oldest amphibian type specimens deposited in a Natural History Museum in Ecuador, the paratypes of Caecilia disossea, collected around 1968 (Taylor 1968). Amongst the type specimens, certain genera stand out for their significant representation. Particularly, the genus Atelopus and Pristimantis are highly abundant in amphibians, while the genus Atractus and Enyaloides dominate for reptiles. Notably, years with the highest number of collected type specimens include 1986 and 2012, which yielded new records of Atelopus in Carchi and Pristimantis in Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe.

Sampling methods
Sampling description: Sampling methods vary amongst collectors and projects. Most of them include Visual Encounter Surveys (VES), sampling plots or linear transects (Angulo et al. 2006). Type specimens deposited in the Herpetology Collection MEPN-H are the result of various donations, purchases and research projects. Before the 1980s, all specimens in the collection were preserved in formalin 10%. During the first years of the 80s, wet specimens were transferred to ethanol 70%. Most of amphibian and reptile type specimens collected after the 80s were fixed with formalin 10% and preserved in ethanol 70%, except for MEPN-H 14219 which corresponds to a cleared and stained specimen stored in glycerine. Step description: The data validation and curation process commenced with an extensive search for scientific descriptions pertaining to herpetological type specimens deposited at Escuela Politecnica Nacional. Collection ID: MEPN-H has been established since 2022, but previous years specimens were referred to as EPN or MEPN. We compared the specimen details mentioned in the corresponding scientific papers with our collection database, field notes if available and the physical specimens housed in our collection.
The majority of type specimens exhibited consistency between the descriptions in the papers, our database and their physical counterparts within our collection. However, during this rigorous validation process, we encountered three specimens that were found to be physically absent from our collection. Furthermore, we discovered three specimens of Anolis vanzolinii that were referenced in the corresponding papers with field numbers instead of the MEPN-H number. In Williams et al. (1996), EPN 2218-9 and EPN 2221 actually correspond to MEPN-H 9823-5, respectively.

Geographic coverage
Description: Collection sites of type specimens are clustered towards the south of Ecuador in the provinces of Zamora Chinchipe, Morona Santiago and Pastaza in the Amazon Region and in the provinces of Carchi and Azuay in the Andes (Fig. 1). Localities with the highest number of types include Tinguichaca, Paquisha and Cerro Plateado.  accessRights Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status.
institutionID An identifier for the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record.
collectionID An identifier for the collection or dataset from which the record was derived.
datasetID An identifier for the set of data. May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to a collection or institution.
institutionCode The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. The name of the continent in which the Location occurs. country The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the Location occurs.
countryCode The standard code for the country in which the Location occurs. stateProvince The name of the next smaller administrative region than country (state, province, canton, department, region etc.) in which the Location occurs. locality The specific description of the place.
minimumElevationInMetres The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres.
maximumElevationInMetres The upper limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres.

decimalLatitude
The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given geodeticDatum The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS), upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based.
typeStatus A list (concatenated and separated) of nomenclatural types (type status, typified scientific name, publication) applied to the subject.
taxonID An identifier for the set of taxon information (data associated with the Taxon class).
May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the dataset. scientificName An identifier for the nomenclatural (not taxonomic) details of a scientific name. kingdom The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified. phylum The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified. class The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified. order The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified. family The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified.

genus
The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified.
specificEpithet The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName. taxonRank The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName.
scientificNameAuthorship The authorship information for the scientificName formatted according to the conventions of the applicable nomenclaturalCode.
preparations A preparation or preservation method for a specimen.