Benjamin Shreve (1908–1985) was an American amateur

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and rep ...

. He was from a wealthy Boston family of jewellers (partners and managers of

Shreve, Crump & Low Shreve, Crump & Low, a Boston, Massachusetts business, is the oldest purveyor of luxury goods in North America, responsible for trophies such as the Davis Cup and the Cy Young Award.

) and worked at the

Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

as a volunteer. He was trained by

Arthur Loveridge Arthur Loveridge (28 May 1891 – 16 February 1980) was a British biologist and herpetologist who wrote about animals in East Africa, particularly Tanzania, and New Guinea. He gave scientific names to several gecko species in the region. Arthu ...

to deal with materials from elsewhere than

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Shreve described many species from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

together with

Thomas Barbour Thomas Barbour (August 19, 1884 – January 8, 1946) was an American herpetologist. From 1927 until 1946, he was director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz at Harvard University in Cambridge, ...

. In these papers, Shreve is said to have done the "spadework" while Barbour wrote "florid" introductions.

Species named in honor of Benjamin Shreve

Reptiles named in honor of Shreve include: *'' Dipsadoboa shrevei'' – Shreve's (nocturnal) tree snake *'' Oreosaurus shrevei'' – Shreve's lightbulb lizard (''Riama shrevei'' is a synonym) *'' Anolis shrevei'' – Shreve's anole *'' Sphaerodactylus shrevei'' – Shreve's least gecko Amphibians named in honor of Shreve are: *''Dendrobates shrevei'' (now a synonym of ''

Andinobates minutus The blue-bellied poison frog or bluebelly poison frog (''Andinobates minutus'') is a species of frog in the family Dendrobatidae. Dart-poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) form the most diverse group of diurnal frogs in the Neotropics, diminutive animal ...

'') – bluebelly poison frog *''Hyla shrevei'' (now a synonym of '' Osteopilus wilderi'') – green bromeliad frog or Wilder's treefrog *'' Anomaloglossus shrevei'' – Shreve's rocket frog *'' Pristimantis shrevei''

References

1908 births 1985 deaths American herpetologists 20th-century American zoologists {{US-zoologist-stub