1 picture = 1000 words?

[Bill Shear]

Piotr Nasrecki is quite right.  I almost never read the written
descriptions in actually using taxonomic papers, but always rely on the
illustrations unless some real ambiguities arise--and then they are rarely
settled by the text.

Jon Coddington has pointed out how useless some 18th and 19th century
descriptions are--they ramble on for pages, describing every detail, but if
they are not illustrated by good, detailed figures, it still may be
impossible to say what species the author had before him.  Long
descriptions that provide tons of pointless, non-diagnostic detail are not
only useless, they take up time, energy and ink that could be devoted to
doing what is most needed: rapidly cataloging and inventorying nature.  To
paraphrase Barry O'Connor's signature line--"So many species, so little
time."

So up with pictures, and let's keep those descriptions short!


Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
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