[Taxacom] Type localities (was: Bionomina 13 published)

[Geoff Read]

"I would agree with Stephen that the distribution
of the taxa is more important than the type locality itself"

No Ken, it is not, at least not for taxonomy - ecology is another matter.
Distributions are ephemeral, changing seasonally and with climate. type
localities are permanent, and useful, as starting points, even for
migratory birds and butterflies.

"Where I found it I do not remember." (Hans Sloane 1725: v. 2 p. 194). 
Love that quote. Try saying that in a paper today.


Geoff

On Fri, December 28, 2018 4:43 pm, Kenneth Kinman wrote:
> Hi Stephen and Elena,
>        The situation that Elena described is not what I would call a
> "widespread uniform species".  Her example would tend to be a chain
> of subspecies, each with small but discoverable differences from
> neighboring populations (even more so from more distant
> subspecies).  So I would agree that type localities would be
> important (although I would agree with Stephen that the
> distribution of the taxa is more important than the type locality
> itself).
>         What I was referring to as "widespread uniform species" would
> generally be long-distance migratory species, like the monarch
> butterfly or perhaps even more so the whooping crane.  The type
> locality of the whooping crane has almost no importance at all, so
> Stephen and I would agree on that.  However, their is a whole
> continuum from there to the opposite extreme of a species such as
> a polyploid plant known only from the small area where it arose,
> having arisen relatively recently from a diploid ancestor.  The
> type locality of that recently evolved polyploid would be far more
> important than the type locality of an albatross or bison, because
> the distribution of that polyploid would barely extend beyond the
> type locality.  A chain of subspecies as Elena described is
> somewhere in between those extremes.
>       So I would agree with Stephen that the distributions are always
> going to be more important than the type locality, but I wouldn't be
> so willing to be so forceful in minimizing the importance of type
> localities to some researchers, especially those who study rare taxa
> with very limited distributions.  It's a contiuum, but a very wide
> one, so the importance of type localities will also be a continuum,
> even though their distributions beyond the type locality will always
> be more important.
>                       ---------------------Ken
> ________________________________
> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> on behalf of Stephen
> Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
> Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2018 8:20 PM
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; Elena Kupriyanova
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Type localities (was: Bionomina 13 published)
>
> Not quite! The type localities per se still aren't important in the
> situation you describe. What matters is the distributions of the segregate
> species in the complex.
>
> Stephen
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Fri, 28/12/18, Elena Kupriyanova <Elena.Kupriyanova at austmus.gov.au>
> wrote:
>
>  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Type localities (was: Bionomina 13 published)
>  To: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>  Received: Friday, 28 December, 2018, 3:15 PM
>
>  > to answer your question, I wouldn't
>  think type localities would be of much importance at all for
>  a common, widespread uniform species.
>
>  Oh, really? Except for the most common
>  situation in shallow-water marine invertebrates. Once one
>  actually bothers to look more or less carefully at this
>  "common, widespread uniform species" and discovers a huge
>  species complex beyond the façade of this "common" or even
>  "cosmopolitan species", the importance of the type
>  localities somehow becomes crystal clear.
>
>
>  Dr. Elena Kupriyanova
>  Senior Research Scientist
>  Marine Invertebrates
>
>  Associate Editor,
>  Records of the Australian Museum
>
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--
Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
gread at actrix.gen.nz