[Taxacom] Paper on one fly, but of general significance

[Stephen Thorpe]

Yes, this is certainly a dilemma. I suspect that overly detailed papers are really just designed to make the authors "look good", rather than doing anything very useful in practice. There certainly is such a thing as too much detail (it is analogous to using too many decimal places in a measurement). However, "looking good" seems to be what most people care about the most. 
 
Stephen


________________________________
From: Chris Thompson <xelaalex at cox.net>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>; Jim Croft <jim.croft at gmail.com>; Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au> 
Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> 
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Paper on one fly, but of general significance


All:

The real question for Biodiversity is cost in terms of money, people and 
time.

This is a wonderful example of a truly comprehensive treatment of a fly. But 
what did it cost? I suspect when that is all tally it will be a thousand or 
so dollars. Also, the people power, the paper has two authors, but I suspect 
there were technicians and others involved. Then there is the time involved.

Then consider there are  some 160,000 species of flies (Insecta: Diptera).

The bottom line is simple we do not now have the people power nor the money 
to do this for all flies. And as one who once asked Bill Gates to support 
Diptera research, I know private donors are not like to help, etc.

Oh, well ...

Chris



-----Original Message----- 
From: Stephen Thorpe
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 5:06 PM
To: Jim Croft ; Bob Mesibov
Cc: TAXACOM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Paper on one fly, but of general significance

It is an interesting question whether identification requires comparison 
with related taxa, or whether a specimen can be identified by finding an 
exact match with another specimen which has already been reliably 
identified. A lot depends on the identifier, I suspect ..

Stephen


________________________________
From: Jim Croft <jim.croft at gmail.com>
To: Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Paper on one fly, but of general significance


Overkill?  And, if it was worth putting in all that effort, would it
have not been worth including comparative diagnostics, and keys to
related or confusing taxa? In identification, the power lies in what
you are able to reject, not so much in what you are left with.  It's
the old glass half empty thing... ;)

jim

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 3:24 PM, Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au> 
wrote:
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