[Taxacom] large animal genera

[JF Mate]

Be that as it may, a genus may be large because of high speciation,
low lineage extinction and morphological stasis, the combination
resulting in a dense "bush" with no clear breaks. If that is
biologically profound or just a lucky, random combination of
circumstances is a moot point. It is still interesting to humans who
are active pattern searchers.

Jason



On 26 May 2015 at 12:18, Anthony Gill <gill.anthony at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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>
> Celebrating 28 years of Taxacom in 2015.