Fermín Zanón Cervera

Last updated March 31, 2019

Fermín Zanón Cervera (1875–1944) was a Spanish zoologist, born in Godelleta, Valencia. He fought in Cuba in the Spanish–American War and stayed on after as a member of the Civil Guard prior to becoming a professional naturalist.^[1] He worked in the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture and Agronomy where he was conservator of the entomological collection.

Godelleta is a municipality in the comarca of Hoya de Buñol in the Valencian Community, Spain.

The Spanish–American War was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. U.S. acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.

American herpetologist Thomas Barbour had been accompanied by Cervera on his visits to Cuba, and on hearing of the strange birds to be found in the Zapata Swamp, he sent the Spaniard on a series of trips into the region. There he discovered three bird species new to science that he sent to Barbour for formal description.^[2]

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles. Birds, which are cladistically included within Reptilia, are traditionally excluded here; the scientific study of birds is the subject of ornithology.

Thomas Barbour 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, Massachusetts.

The Zapata Swamp is located on the Zapata Peninsula in the southern Matanzas province of Cuba. It is located less than 150 kilometres (93 mi) southeast of Havana. Ciénaga de Zapata represents also a municipality, the largest one of Cuba with 4,162 km².

The binomial names given by Barbour to two of the new species commemorate their finder.

Zapata wren (Ferminia cerverai)
Zapata sparrow (Torreornis inexpectata)
Zapata rail (Cyanolimnas cerverai)

The Zapata wren is a medium sized grayish-brown bird that lives in dense shrubs of the Zapata Swamp, Cuba. It is the only member of the monotypical genus Ferminia.

The Zapata sparrow is a medium-sized grey and yellow bird that lives in the grasslands of the Zapata Swamp and elsewhere on the island of Cuba. Measuring about 16.5 centimetres (6.5 in) in length, it is grey and yellow overall with a dark reddish-brown crown and olive-grey upperparts.

The Zapata rail is a medium-sized, dark-coloured rail, the only member of the monotypic genus Cyanolimnas. It has brown upperparts, greyish-blue underparts, a red-based yellow bill, white undertail coverts, and red eyes and legs. Its short wings render it almost flightless. It is endemic to the wetlands of the Zapata Peninsula in southern Cuba, where its only known nest was found in sawgrass tussocks. Little is known of its diet or reproductive behaviour, and its described calls may belong to a different species.

The wren, rail and one subspecies of the sparrow are endemic to the swamp. Cervera also found many new insects, especially of the order Neuroptera.

The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera can be grouped together with the Megaloptera and Raphidioptera in the superfamily Neuropterida the latter including: alderflies, fishflies, dobsonflies, and snakeflies.

In 1927 Cervera returned to Spain to continue working as an entomologist, and remained in his hometown of Godelleta until his death in 1944.

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References

↑ Barbour, Thomas (1928). "Notes on three Cuban birds" (PDF). The Auk. 45 (1): 28–32. doi:10.2307/4075353.
↑ Peters, James (1948). "Thomas Barbour, 1884–1946" (PDF). The Auk. 65 (3): 432–438. doi:10.2307/4080492.

External links

Image of Cervera and his Zapata birds at Birding Cuba

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[barbourcuba-1] Barbour, Thomas (1928). "Notes on three Cuban birds" (PDF). The Auk. 45 (1): 28–32. doi:10.2307/4075353.

[peters-2] Peters, James (1948). "Thomas Barbour, 1884–1946" (PDF). The Auk. 65 (3): 432–438. doi:10.2307/4080492.