[Taxacom] Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from Africa

[Peter Rauch]

The authors state,

"Material and methods

"The new species are introduced with the least effort required to comply
with
the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, but the most effect for
their practical application."

I found the authors' meta-discussion (i.e., the extensive discussion about
why they chose to produce this work in the manner they did) inspiring as
regards their goal of seeking the "most effect for their practical
application".

Given the amount of "discovery" that chronically lies before us, and given
the huge likelihood that we are losing the opportunity to "discover"
because we (Society) simply haven't cared a hoot, have not panicked over
the obvious destruction of the very fabric of our security blanket, the
authors' taxonomic approach to THAT problem is a breath of fresh air in its
"practicality", and useful information about these mere, yet
eloquently-described examples of the impending, permanent losses of our
world's biodiversity likely would not have come "soon enough" had the
authors' time been otherwise "distracted" from sending us all their message.

The practice of taxonomy is still challenged to save not itself, but to
save the world's biodiversity, and along with that some better days for
Humanity.

I applaud the authors' effort because of the way these beasts were
"published" ---NOW, and not too late.

[ If the authors failed in their self-assigned task of "...least effort
required to comply with
the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature...", then perhaps those
failures can be identified, cited, discussed on level ground. But, to have
"failed" in their mission --which was not simply to describe 60 new
species--  NOT. ]

Peter

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 4:14 AM, JF Mate <aphodiinaemate at gmail.com> wrote:

> Of all the criticisms the only one that sticks (slightly) is the choice of
> publication, as something like Zookeys would have been better (accessible
> with lots of the bells and whistles); although this is understandable
> considering the affiliation of one of the authors.
>
> The rest I think are somewhat unfair when you consider that the authors are
> doing this pro bono mostly. When your paycheck comes from other quarters,
> it is a remarkable and laudable achievement.
>
> Best
>
> Jason
> On 11/12/2015 8:42 PM, "Roderic Page" <Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > Hi Ellinor,
> >
> > While I applaud the effort, and the dragonflies are wonderful, it’s hard
> > to applaud the way this paper has been published:
> >
> > Does it in an open access journal? No
> > Does the article have a DOI so that it can be easily cited? No
> > Are the names registered with ZooBank? No
> > Are the DNA sequences available in GenBank? No
> > Is the data available for downloading? No*
> > Has the distributional data been deposited in GBIF? No
> >
> > I don’t wish to take away from what has clearly been a lot of work, but
> > surely we need to think about the best way to make all this hard work as
> > widely accessible as possible? A PDF with wonderful pictures of
> dragonflies
> > and low resolution maps does not represent the best that modern taxonomic
> > publishing can offer.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Rod
> >
> > * The articles says "A list of collection codes and corresponding BOLD
> > numbers can be down- loaded from the journal website (
> > http://www.odonatologica.com)” This is not a link to the data, which I
> > can’t see anywhere on the web site.
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > Roderic Page
> > Professor of Taxonomy
> > Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
> > College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
> > Graham Kerr Building
> > University of Glasgow
> > Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
> >
> > Email:  Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk<mailto:Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk>
> > Tel:  +44 141 330 4778
> > Skype:  rdmpage
> > Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rdmpage
> > LinkedIn:  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/rdmpage
> > Twitter:  http://twitter.com/rdmpage
> > Blog:  http://iphylo.blogspot.com
> > ORCID:  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7101-9767
> > Citations:
> http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=4Z5WABAAAAAJ
> > ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roderic_Page
> >
> >
> > On 11 Dec 2015, at 11:14, Ellinor Michel <e.michel at nhm.ac.uk<mailto:
> > e.michel at nhm.ac.uk>> wrote:
> >
> > [posted on behalf of the primary author, Klaas-Douwe 'KD' B. Dijkstra]
> >
> > 'Dear colleagues,
> >
> > All awareness, conservation and research of nature starts with the
> > question: which species is that? Names introduce species to humanity.
> It’s
> > a biologist’s greatest importance today, but just now nature is under
> > historic pressure, such research is getting less support.
> >
> > We aim to expose this paradox by naming 60 new dragonflies from Africa,
> > increasing the number known by almost 10% at once. All are colourful and
> > conspicuous, representing some of the most sensitive and beautiful of all
> > biodiversity: freshwater, Earth’s most dense and threatened species
> > richness — Africa, the continent that will change most in the 21st
> century
> > — and dragonflies, the insects that may be among the best gauges of
> global
> > change.
> >
> > We hope this message will be heard widely, so please share this as you
> > wish, e.g. on blogs and to the local media, particularly in Africa
> itself.
> >
> > Press release: https://goo.gl/KGMsyC
> > Info and images: https://goo.gl/vRoJSL
> > Full publication: www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads<
> > http://www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads><
> > http://www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads>
> > Watch discovery of new species in DR Congo: youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU<
> > http://youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU><http://youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU>
> >
> > Best wishes, also on behalf of my co-authors Jens and Nico, who have both
> > made their exceptional contributions in their free time!
> >
> > Klaas-Douwe 'KD' B. Dijkstra
> > Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
> > Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, South
> Africa
> > science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra<http://science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra><
> > http://science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra>
>
>