ATBIs

[Neal Evenhuis]

>Neal, Perhaps I don't understand the contrast you are making.
>
>It seems to me that what you've described is a methodology that
>has some efficiency for a locality (Hawaii) where most of the
>biota (except for those major categories you named) was
>known. So, looking to the literature and collections to
>"list" the Hawaiin biota was "efficient".
>
>How would that approach work for that large part of the world
>where most species are not already known / collected /
>identified /easily identifiable?
>
>It seems that collecting would be one of the first chores to
>attack, if indeed the purpose of the ATBI were to inventory all
>the biota of an area.
>

Granted, the HBS methodology may not work well for those areas you
describe where the biota is not well-known (but then "not well-known"
is a relative term).

Maybe then the criteria for choosing an area for an ATBI should be
based on how efficiently can you get the job done vs. picking an area
that is virtually unknown and square bashing or doing some other
major collecting effort and seeing little or no results over a long
period of time (viz., Chris's "birds, butterflies, and pick your
favorite"). Funding agencies like to see successes with the money
they give out. Grand expeditions and collecting efforts are
well-intentioned, but to what end? Collect them before they go
extinct? We'll ID them later?

Chris' pessimism is not wrong. There are few ATBIs that have been
successful because of various logistics or political failures over
time. How many of the various major surveys that have taken place in
recent history have seen good "ATBI" results from them? Project
Wallace, if I'm not mistaken, still has dozens of Lyons cabinets full
of large jars of alcohol-preserved Malaise-trapped specimens that sit
unsorted -- after how many years?

Staffing is a major concern, but funding to do any survey should also
be a concern. After various attempts to do ATBIs and not much to show
for the attempts (or to even get them started), how many more times
will funding agencies want to pour funds into such a program?

Just my $0.02,

Neal