Career
He was from a wealthy family of jewellers and worked at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology as a volunteer. He was trained by Arthur Loveridge to deal with materials from elsewhere than Africa. Shreve described many species from the West Indies together with Thomas Barbour.
In these papers, Shreve is said to have done the "spadework" while Barbour wrote "florid" introductions.
Reptiles named in honor of Shreve include:
Dipsadoboa shrevei — Shreve"s (nocturnal) tree snake
Riama shrevei — Shreve"s lightbulb lizard
Anolis shrevei — Shreve"s anole
Sphaerodactylus shrevei — Shreve"s least gecko
Amphibians named in honor of Shreve are:
Dendrobates shrevei (now synonym of Andinobates minutus) — bluebelly poison frog
Hyla shrevei (now synonym of Osteopilus wilderi) — green bromeliad frog or Wilder"s treefrog
Anomaloglossus shrevei — Shreve"s rocket frog
Pristimantis shrevei.