[Taxacom] Who should get the kudos?

Thu Jan 3 11:54:20 CST 2019

George -

There is no better example than bestowing credit to collectors than
this one: https://doi.org/10.3897/JHR.50.8220. Kudos to the team of
taxonomists that honoured all the children involved. "The new species
described...received patronyms based on the winners of a school child
nature awareness competition conducted by the Programa de Educación
Biológica de ACG in the last half of 2015".

David

On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 12:40 PM blaberus1 <g.beccaloni at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Perhaps I could ask: does anyone consider a collector to be the discoverer
> of a species if the collector did not realise it was new to science? The
> people I mentioned believe that it was Ali not Wallace who discovered
> Semioptera wallacii.
>
> Thanks!
>
> George
>
> On Thu, 3 Jan 2019 at 16:29, John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > George,
> >
> > In my experience for the group of my study species have sometimes been
> > named for the collector, sometimes not. Seems to be a discretionary choice.
> > There seems to be no necessity for the Semioptera to have been named after
> > the collection. For the new species for which I have been involved with
> > none of the collectors who brought material to the attention of myself or
> > colleagues 'knew' in advance that they had a new species. I have found new
> > species in other groups and it would be absurd to expect that the species
> > should necessarily be named after me just because I found the specimens. I
> > think your critics are unfamiliar with normal taxonomic practice. I'll be
> > interested to what others on the list with broader experience have to say.
> >
> > John Grehan
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 11:18 AM blaberus1 <g.beccaloni at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I have been debating with historians of science and others for a while now
> >> about who discovered Semioptera wallacii (Standardwing Bird of Paradise):
> >> –
> >> was it Alfred Russel Wallace or his assistant Ali? They are arguing it was
> >> Ali as he shot the first specimen – and they believe it is a great
> >> injustice it was named after Wallace (in fact I have been called “racist”
> >> for arguing against this point of view!).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Wallace wrote in his book *The Malay Archipelago* “Just as I got home I
> >> overtook Ali returning from shooting with some birds hanging from his
> >> belt.
> >> He seemed much pleased, and said, "Look here, sir, what a curious bird,"
> >> holding out what at first completely puzzled me. I saw a bird with a mass
> >> of splendid green feathers on its breast, elongated into two glittering
> >> tufts; but, what I could not understand was a pair of long white feathers,
> >> which stuck straight out from each shoulder. Ali assured me that the bird
> >> stuck them out this way itself, when fluttering its wings, and that they
> >> had remained so without his touching them. I now saw that I had got a
> >> great
> >> prize, no less than a completely new form of the Bird of Paradise,
> >> differing most remarkably from every other known bird.”
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> As a taxonomist my argument is that while Ali collected the first specimen
> >> he did not know it was a species new to Western taxonomy. We are talking
> >> about species new to SCIENCE, not simply new to Ali. Unlike Wallace, Ali
> >> was illiterate and was not a biologist/taxonomist. Wallace, however,
> >> thanks
> >> to his in-depth knowledge of the birds of the region, immediately
> >> recognised that it was a new species. He excitedly wrote to his agent
> >> Stevens:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "...I believe I have already the finest & most wonderful bird in the
> >> island
> >> [Bacan, Indonesia]. I had a good mind to keep it a secret but I cannot
> >> resist telling you, I have got here a new Bird of Paradise!! of a new
> >> genus!!! quite unlike anything yet known, very curious & very handsome!!!
> >> When I can get a couple of pairs I will send them overland to see what a
> >> new Bird of Paradise will really fetch. I expect £25 each! Had I seen the
> >> bird in Ternate I would never have believed it came from here, so far out
> >> of the hitherto supposed region of the Paradiseidae. I consider it the
> >> greatest discovery I have yet made..." (Wallace, 1858)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> So Wallace clearly thought HE had discovered it.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The species was named in Wallace’s honour by Gray in 1859 -
> >>
> >> http://wallace-online.org/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=WSPEC017&viewtype=text
> >> based on a sketch which Wallace had sent.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> So my argument is that simply collecting a new species does not mean you
> >> discovered it – even if it is new to you personally. The discoverer is the
> >> person who realises it is a species not yet named by taxonomists. What do
> >> you think?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Incidentally, I note that none of 10 randomly selected species of
> >> cockroaches described in the last 10 years were named after the collectors
> >> of the holotypes of these species. Their names were, however, mentioned in
> >> the species descriptions, so they were credited for their efforts.
> >> Perhaps,
> >> however, some taxonomists do regularly name species after their
> >> collectors?
> >> Does anyone know whether this practice is commonly followed by taxonomists
> >> of particular groups?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> George Beccaloni
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> >>
> >
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