[Taxacom] Taxonomic carelessness - the case of Francis Walker

[gerarus at westnet.com.au]

In arachnology the leading exemplar of terrible taxonomy is generally agreed to be Carl-Friedrich Roewer, who proposed a whole host of synonyms, sometimes placing them in different families. However, I'd hesitate to describe Roewer's work as "carelessness"; rather, it was the result of the highly artificial (and as it turned out, biologically unrealistic) classification system he used (count the spines, count the tarsal segments, etc.) It wasn't so much a design bug as a feature.

    Christopher Taylor

Christopher Taylor
Dept of Environmental Biology
Curtin University of Technology
GPO Box U1987
Perth
WA 6845
Australia

http://catalogue-of-organisms.blogspot.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Mesibov" <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
To: "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Saturday, 22 August, 2009 8:22:56 AM GMT +08:00 Perth
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Taxonomic carelessness - the case of Francis Walker

Is the Dermaptera Verhoeff the same as our beloved Myriapoda Verhoeff, i.e. Karl W. Verhoeff?

Richard Hoffman devotes a subchapter in his 'Classification of the Diplopoda' to 'On the problem of Verhoeffian generic and familial names'. He lists 50 invalidly published genera and 39 generic names which are junior objective synonyms. In other words, KWV established 39 new genera based on the type species of an earlier genus, 10 of which were his own.

The Verhoeffian legacy includes other taxonomic bads, including the total disregard of the work of other myriapod taxonomists.

I've been told, though, that for sheer incompetence and disruptiveness, no one comes close to Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz. Someone more familiar with Rafinesquerie might like to comment.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Website: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html

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