[Taxacom] large animal genera

[Anthony Gill]

There are large genera because taxonomist have made them as such. Taxonomic
rank has no reality, so there's not much point in trying to look for common
causes.

Tony

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 4:56 PM, Peter Rauch <peterar at berkeley.edu> wrote:

> Hmmm.  So why are these (and other) genera so large ?   :>)
>
> -- No splitters among those taxonomists ?  (Do those large genera have an
> abundance of "subgenera" (or whatever other groupings might have been
> discerned) ?)
>
> --Too many splitters among those taxonomists --there really aren't that
> many "species" in those genera ?
>
> -- They're insects --what more explanation is needed ? (Aside from insects,
> what other groups of animals [might] have such large genera ? Felix
> mentioned one mite genus.)
>
> -- It's just an illusion --once we classify all the world's animals, we'll
> find many more large genera ? Or, once we look closer at these known large
> genera, we'll discover that they are really divisible into many new genera
> (relates to the first question above, I suppose) ?
>
> -- Other reasons ?
>
> Peter
>
>
> On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 11:40 PM, Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu> wrote:
>
> > On 5/25/15 10:55 PM, Felix Sperling wrote:
> >
> >> What animal genera have more than 900 species? I'm hoping to find out
> how
> >> unusually species-rich the water mite genus Arrenurus is.
> >>
> >> Reply to Heather Proctor at hproctor at ualberta.ca.
> >>
> >>  Nomada has around 900, Cerceris has around 1030, and Lasioglossum has
> > about 1050 (depending on how you define it), Andrena has around 1060, but
> > Agrilus puts them to shame, at over 3000. Goodness knows how one should
> > deal with Cicindela and Carabus.
> >
> > Peace,
> > --
> > Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> > Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
> > phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
> >              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
>
>
>
> > ...
> >
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-- 
Dr Anthony C. Gill
Natural History Curator
A12 Macleay Museum
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
Australia.

Ph. +61 02 9036 6499