The historical collection of molluscs of the Estação de Biologia Marítima da Inhaca, southern Mozambique

Abstract

Natural history collections house records of the natural world that serve multiple purposes, from enabling taxonomic and biodiversity research to providing opportunities to reconstruct baselines and quantify change. Most collections occur in the Global North, but the highest biodiversity occurs in countries of the Global South. The few collections in the latter countries thus deserve special recognition and curation effort. Here, we describe the molluscan collection housed in the museum of the Estação de Biologia Marítima da Inhaca (EBMI) in southern Mozambique. EBMI was founded on Inhaca Island in 1951 and hosts a museum containing plants and animals mostly collected on the island since the station’s foundation. The molluscan collection—completely revised during our work—comprises 986 lots with 4574 specimens representing 395 species, plus a single lot of brachiopods (2 specimens) stored with the molluscs. Gastropods and bivalves are the most represented classes, with 661 (66.9%) and 317 (32.1%) lots, respectively, but few lots of Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Cephalopoda are also present. Importantly, most lots (613, 62.1%) have the date of collecting reported, with the median year of collecting being 1964, and 83% of samples were collected before 1974, making the collection a unique baseline to assess changes to molluscan assemblages on the island. All lots with locality data (446, 45.2%) come from Mozambique, and most (350, 35.5%) from Inhaca Island, but due to the history of the collection and the individuals who contributed samples, the lots without collecting data are deemed to come from Inhaca too. The syntypes of Lutraria inhacaensis Boshoff, 1965 (Bivalvia: Mactridae) were found in the EBMI collection. The type material of Chama ratoi Boshoff, 1965 (Bivalvia: Chamidae) and Tagelus cunhai Boshoff, 1965 (Bivalvia: Solecurtidae), originally reported from EBMI, were found in the Museu de História Natural de Maputo instead. The potential importance of the EBMI historical collection for studies on taxonomy, biodiversity, and sustainability is highlighted. It is a collection of regional importance and further curation and preservation is needed.