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

[Karl Magnacca]

Chris Thompson <xelaalex at cox.net> wrote:
> 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.

This really is the rub.  The paper includes 9 illustrations, 17
stacked photos, and one SEM.  I suspect that several more were
taken, especially since some of the illustrations do not appear to
be based on the photos included.  Simply taking, editing (the pins
or points are photoshopped out of the main habitus pictures), and
laying out all the photos is time consuming.  I'm working on a
revision of a group with ca. 500 species, and even with a fast
workflow doing descriptions with Delta and four photos each to
illustrate the important characters, it's going to take a very long
time.

While I understand the sentiment, I'd be happy if people just
included the characters that are *already* recognized as being
important, never mind those that are considered useless.  There are
still descriptions being published today that could apply to about
100 of my species, with maybe a single low-res photo that doesn't
show the characters.

Karl