[Taxacom] prolific species describers

[Rosenberg,Gary]

Clench & Turner's (1962) total of 5680 name for Henry A. Pilsbry is probably at least 10% low. Johnson & Clench (2002) published additions and corrections to Clench & Turner, adding about 200 names.  At ANSP, where Pilsbry was curator for 70 years, we've maintained an annotated copy of Clench & Turner which lists many items missed by both Clench & Turner and Johnson & Clench. So Pilsbry surely introduced over 6,000 names, most of which were mollusks (he was also a world authority on barnacles in his spare time).

Getting a final total for Pilsbry is difficult. He validated hundreds of manuscript names in the 35 volumes of the Manual of Conchology that he authored. We still find dozens of names every year to add to his list.

Gary Rosenberg
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
Drexel University

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Pat LaFollette
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2013 3:03 PM
To: Ohl, Michael; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] prolific species describers

The most prolific authors of molluscan names seem to be Henry Augustus Pilsbry with 5,680 names, and close runner-up, William Healey Dall, with 5,302 (plus 125 non-molluscan taxa). These counts include genus group names. Statistics from Boss, K. J., J. P. 
Rosewater, and F. A. Ruhoff, 1968 "The zoological taxa of William Healey Dall." Bull USNM 287: 4. 
<http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7847039>http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7847039 


Pat

At 06:53 AM 4/13/2013, Ohl, Michael wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I had expected that this request has already been posted in Taxacom, 
>but my (very) quick search in the Taxacom archive resulted in nothing. 
>So here it is (again?).
>
>I am trying to set up a list of the most prolific species describers in 
>zoology. A few names immediately came to my mind, like Charles Paul 
>Alexander with more than 11,000 names in Diptera, and Johann Christian 
>Fabricius with more than 10,000 names across several insect orders. But 
>there might be more!
>
>So please post your bid for higher or similar numbers! I will 
>distribute a top-10-list at the end.
>
>Although I am basically interested in the total number of names 
>published by a single person, any further statistics are welcome, if 
>available. Number of names still valid today, total number of genus- 
>vs. species-group names ....
>
>Cheers, Michael Ohl
>
>Museum fuer Naturkunde, Berlin
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>The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:
>
>(1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
>(2) a Google search specified
>as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>
>Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.

Patrick I LaFollette
Research Associate in Malacology
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County pat at lafollette.com _______________________________________________
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The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:

(1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org

(2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here

Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.