[Taxacom] How many species have been reported only once

[Bob Mesibov]

It's interesting that this thread has mainly been dealing with species mentions and how to detect them. If I understood you correctly, David, you were concerned:

"...that our understanding of 50% and 65% of all species is limited to the information that was included in the original description. That is, for very many species, there have not been any further publications that add new information."

While it might be possible to get an improved estimate of the proportion, was  that really what you were after? Or were you more interested as you said in

- "the reliability and effectiveness of the discovery process", i.e., is there a way to get more information about each species once it's discovered?
- "how many species there are", i.e., is there a way to estimate total species in a taxon from the pattern of species descriptions in that taxon?
- "asymmetry within our discipline", which I interpret as "We seem to invest a lot into gathering information about small numbers of species, why don't we spread our effort and learn a little more about a lot of species?"
-- 
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