Unlocking the Entomological Collection of the Natural History Museum of Maputo, Mozambique

Abstract

The collections of the Natural History Museum of Maputo have a crucial role in the safeguarding of Mozambique's biodiversity, representing an important repository of data and materials regarding the natural heritage of the country. In this paper, a dataset is described, based on the Museum’s Entomological Collection recording 409 species belonging to seven orders and 48 families. Each specimen’s available data, such as geographical coordinates and taxonomic information, have been digitised to build the dataset. The specimens included in the dataset were obtained between 1914–2018 by collectors and researchers from the Natural History Museum of Maputo (once known as “Museu Alváro de Castro”) in all the country’s provinces, with the exception of Cabo Delgado Province. This paper adds data to the Biodiversity Network of Mozambique and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, within the objectives of the SECOSUD II Project and the Biodiversity Information for Development Programme. The aforementioned insect dataset is available on the GBIF Engine data portal (https://doi.org/10.15468/j8ikhb). Data were also shared on the Mozambican national portal of biodiversity data BioNoMo (https://bionomo.openscidata.org), developed by SECOSUD II Project.

BioNoMo: the Biodiversity Network of Mozambique

“…As regards the ornithofauna, BirdLife International (2022) records 678 bird species. More than 3000 insect species, including 433 species of butterflies (Papilionoidea), are estimated in the country (Sandramo et al 2021;Sáfián et al 2022). Regarding information on the herpetofauna, Mozambique is recovering from having one of the most poorly known in Africa (Branch et al 2005), though a significant lack of knowledge about the occurrence and distribution of taxa in the country persists (Neves et al 2019).…”

Challenges and directions in analytical paleobiology

“…One major step forward is digitization. For example, many museums have committed to digitizing their collections ( Nelson and Ellis 2019 ; Bakker et al 2020 ; Hedrick et al 2020 ; Sandramo et al 2021 ). However, only a fraction of these “dark data” have been mobilized given the substantial time, money, and effort required ( Nelson et al 2012 ; Paterson et al 2016 ; Marshall et al 2018 ).…”

A contribution to the knowledge of the slug moths (Zygaenoidea: Limacodidae) of the Maputo Special Reserve

“…With regards to the Limacodidae fauna of Mozambique, 33 valid species of Limacodidae have currently been recorded in the country (De Prins & De Prins 2021), far fewer than the 103 species recorded by Janse (1964) for South Africa. Mozambique's entomological diversity is considered to be generally understudied (Sandramo et al 2021), and there is currently a complete lack of specific literature on the Limacodidae of the country.…”