[Taxacom] Taxonomic carelessness - the case of Francis Walker

[Fabian Haas]

There is a story around -mention in Burrs Genera Insectorum foreword- 
that Verhoeff use a pinhole as character to describe a species of 
earwig. Though I never saw a confirmation, the quality of Verhoeff's 
works points into this direction

George Beccaloni wrote:
> Whilst curating the Natural History Museum's cockroach collection I came
> across the following extraordinary example of Francis Walker's (1809 -
> 1874) carelessness:- in a single publication (his 1868 "Catalogue of the
> Specimens of Blattariae in the Collection of the British Museum") he
> named a cockroach species three times (as Ischnoptera ruficeps,
> Nauphoeta ruficeps and Nauphoeta signifrons), all of which are
> considered to be synonyms of an earlier name (Oxyhaloa deusta (Thunberg,
> 1784)). Not only that but he placed Ischnoptera  and Nauphoeta in two
> very different families (Blattidae and Panchloridae)! Considering that
> all the specimens look identical (with minor differences between
> ruficeps and signifrons); that he had both sexes of all except
> signifrons (but he didn't manage to sex some of the specimens
> correctly!); AND that they all came from the same country (South
> Africa), it makes you wonder whether he relied more on luck than
> judgement when naming species. I guess he independently coined the name
> ruficeps for two of the taxa because of their reddish heads, failing to
> remember that he had seen one of them before!
>
>  
>
> Does anyone else have any worse examples of taxonomic carelessness, or
> is this a record?!
>  
> ************************************************************************
> ****
> Dr George Beccaloni,
> Curator of Orthopteroidea (cockroaches [including termites], mantids,
> earwigs, stick insects,
> grasshoppers, crickets etc) & the A. R. Wallace insect collection,
> Entomology Department,
> The Natural History Museum [British Museum (Natural History)],
> Cromwell Road,
> South Kensington,
> London SW7 5BD, UK.
> Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 5361
> Fax. +44 (0)20 7942 5229
>  
> My Web CV:- 
> http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/entomology/cv-353
> 4.html
> World catalogue of cockroaches:-
> http://blattodea.speciesfile.org/HomePage.aspx
> Blattodea Culture Group (cockroach study group):-
> http://blattodea-culture-group.org/
> The Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund:- http://wallacefund.info/
> ************************************************************************
> ****
>  
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>   

-- 

**********************************************************
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Dr. Fabian Haas
ICIPE - African Insect Science for Food and Health
Duduville Campus, Kasarani
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N A I R O B I
Kenya

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