Alphonse Richard Hoge

Alphonse Richard Hoge (born September 5, 1912 in Cacequi , Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil , † December 25, 1982 in São Paulo ) was a Brazilian herpetologist . His research focus was the lizards and venomous snakes of South America.

Live and act

Hoge's father was a Belgian engineer who stayed temporarily in Brazil to oversee bridge construction projects. From 1913, Hoge lived with his family in Ghent , Belgium. Between 1929 and 1934 he studied science and medicine at the University of Ghent . He then became an assistant to Georges Bobeau in Paris, who researched the use of snake venom to inhibit cancer cell growth . In 1939 Hoge returned to Brazil and worked for the pharmaceutical company Ciba, Roche & Torres. In 1946 he became an employee at Instituto Butantan and in 1969 he was appointed head of the biological department. In 1982 he retired.

Between 1946 and 1981, Hoge published 112 scientific articles. Almost all herpetological nature and deal with the systematics, distribution and the description of many new taxa, including Atropoides occiduus , Bothrops fonsecai , Bothrops marajoensis , Bothrops moujeni , Bothrops sanctaecrucis , Corallus cropanii , Erythrolamprus mossoroensis , Lygophis paucidens , Oxyrhopus guibei , Phalotris mertensi , Psychosaura macrorhyncha and Trimeresurus brongersmai . Hoge's major works include Preliminary account on Neotropical Crotalinae (Serpentes Viperidae) (1965), Neotropical pit vipers, sea snakes, and coral snakes (1971), Sinopse das serpentes pegonhentas do Brasil. Serpentes, Elapidae e Viperidae (1973, with a second edition in 1978) and Poisonous snakes of the world. I. Check list of the pit vipers. Viperidea, Viperidae, Crotalinae (1978). Hoge's wife, Alma Romano, was the co-author of all but the first title.

Hoge's most significant articles from a biological point of view include a study of the island lance viper ( Bothrops insularis ), which is endemic to the small, rugged island of Queimada Grande off the southeast coast of the Brazilian state of São Paulo . This species, which was discovered by Hoges butantane colleague Afrânio Pompílio Gastos do Amaral , has a high proportion of specimens with sexual abnormalities, which sometimes reach hermaphroditic forms . The number of intersexes rose to 70 percent between Amaral's discovery in the early 1920s and the 1950s, when Hoge examined the phenomenon in detail.

Hoge died on December 25, 1982 as a result of a medical accident.

Dedication names

The snake species Atractus alphonsehogei , the double snake species Amphisbaena hogei and Hoge's toad-headed turtle ( Mesoclemmys hogei ) are named after Hoge .

literature

• Kraig Adler, John S. Applegarth, Ronald Altig: Contributions to the History of Herpetology. (= Contributions to herpetology. 5). Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1989, ISBN 0-916984-19-2
• Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2011, ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5 , p. 125

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hoge, AR, Belluomini, HE, Schreiber, G. & Penha, AM (1959): Sexual abnormalities in Bothrops insularis (Amaral) 1921 (Serpentes). Memórias do Instituto Butantan 29: 17-88.