Taxacom: published blatant misidentifications

Mon Dec 16 01:31:09 CST 2024

Hi Frank and all,

Predatory journals are responsible to some extent.  In the past, I was
asked to review manuscripts, and some species identifications based on
photography were wrong.  So, of course, I indicated it and asked the
editors to inform the author to correct the misidentification.
Surprisingly, those papers were published without correction.  What is the
peer review for?

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*Hideyuki Chiba Ph.D *
ZOOTAXA Subject Editor (Lepidoptera)
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Research Associate
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu
Hawai?i 96817-2704, USA.
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2024?12?16?(?) 4:11 Frank T. Krell via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>:

> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>
> It occurred to me that in the last ten years or so, we find an increasing
> number of blatant misidentification of species in the published literature.
> That might have to do with the increase of online publishing, but also with
> a decreasing understanding and esteem of taxonomy. I decided to write a
> paper on it with the working title "Species identification is not to be
> trifled with-blatant misidentifications are increasing in the published
> literature".
>
> It is not nice, some may consider it impolite or even worse, to point to
> the mistakes of others, but there is no other way to expose this problem.
> These papers are published after all, hence are subject to scientific
> discourse. Without presenting examples, everything could be considered
> hearsay or exaggeration.
>
> With BLATANT misidentifications I mean
>
>   *   species identification wrong at family level (or subfamily level)
>   *   species identified as a species from another
> continent/biogeographical realm
>   *
> I will not discuss "honest" misidentification of difficult to identify
> tiny brown beetles at species level, misidentifications in databases or
> collections, or misidentifications in the mass media incl. social media.
> For this paper, I focus on blatant misidentifications in the published
> scientific literature.
>
> I have already lots of examples, but most are centered around my own
> literature research (beetles, particularly scarab beetles). I am sure many
> of you came across papers with unbelievable identifications. I am looking
> for additional examples of blatant misidentifications (be they about
> beetles or not).
> If you want to make me aware of them, please send a note to
> frank.krell at dmns.org<mailto:frank.krell at dmns.org> with links or
> attachments, or just the bibliographic references.
>
> Thank you very much.
> Have a great holiday season
>
> Frank
>
> Dr. Frank-Thorsten Krell
>
> Senior Curator of Entomology, Editor-in-Chief
> Department of Zoology
> Denver Museum of Nature & Science
> 2001 Colorado Blvd
> Denver, Colorado 80205-5798, U.S.A.
> Frank.krell at dmns.org<mailto:Frank.krell at dmns.org>
> Phone 303.370.8244
> Fax 303.331.6492
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