[Nhcoll-l] Accession of rare photo records

Lance McBrayer lancemcbrayer at georgiasouthern.edu
Mon May 21 16:21:24 EDT 2018


All

I curate a herpetology collection of about 35,000 specimens, almost all of
which are actual specimens. However, I also take definitive photographs
such that there is little to no question about the species in the
photograph. I am aware of the debate on the value of photographic records,
but I've come into an interesting situation.

Recently, a collector I do not know asked to voucher a photograph of an
invasive species of tropical frog that is established in Florida, and now
Georgia and several other states.  Yet this record is from Massachusetts.
Furthermore, the specimen was photographed in a potted plant in a national
chain store of lumber and hardware...in February of 2018.

Clearly the frog was brought there in or on the plant(s). But as such, this
record is potentially valuable. This tropical frog species is very likely
to have died in the harsh MA winter....but it does well cohabitating with
humans...so maybe not. And the store is literally next to a major river.
So, if it does survive and disperse, it could move lots of places quickly.

I have contacted four other very knowledgeable herpetologists to confirm my
identification, and that of the collector. We all agree it "looks like" the
same species; i.e. all five of us agree on the identification.

To accession, or not to accession?  How do we balance the risk of
preserving high *quality* data while at the same documenting potentially
important events like this?

Thanks for your insights.
lm

-- 
Lance D. McBrayer
Associate Dean of Faculty & Research Programs
College of Science and Mathematics
Georgia Southern University
TEL: 912.478.5111
*Webpage <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__sites.google.com_a_georgiasouthern.edu_lance-2Dd-2Dmcbrayer_&d=DwIBaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=X8OZAEBTE3DbHbmuWdsqg9AShDNGf1EHZQbvVr2zrm8&s=nrFiBYQ9akOJWFB-DdBiohFzLRZa6tB2IYJPTWTiE1k&e=>*
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