[Taxacom] Scolopendra sagraea

[Neal Evenhuis]

I agree. 

Sagra returned from Cuba to France in 1835 and immediately began arranging for experts to work up his collected material. Guérin was one of those Sagra chose, along with d'Orbigny, Richard, and Guichenot. The publication of the Histoire .. etc. de Cuba lasted more than twenty years. One of the first parts to come out was the Oiseaux (1839). That the arthropods under Guérin were delayed is not unusual for him. Guérin was an overly ambitious man and took on quite a lot of projects, often illustrating the plates for them as well. At the time Sagra approached Guérin about the Cuban material, he was already busy producing plates for his "Iconographie du Règne Animal" and publishing thousands of entries in his and other's dictionnaires.

No doubt Guérin had by 1837 (probably earlier) sorted out the Scolopendra, named it in his collection, and Gervais saw it and the name on the label and published it with the attribution to Guérin's upcoming Cuba volume (which of course at the time no one knew it would not see the light of day for another 20 years). 

Cheers,

-Neal

Neal L. Evenhuis
Senior Curator of Entomology
Editor, Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature
Bishop Museum 
Honolulu, Hawaii  96817-2704, USA

On 4/7/20, 8:41 PM, "Taxacom on behalf of Laurent Raty via Taxacom" <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu on behalf of taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:

    Dear Carlos,
    
    I think "msc." in the reference cited by Gervais stands for "manuscrit". 
    To me, this looks like a reference to a manuscript version of:
    
    Gérin-Méneville, FE. 1857. Animaux articulés à pieds articulés. In: La 
    Sagra, R de. Histoire politique, physique et naturelle de l'île de Cuba. 
    Arthus Bertrand, Paris.
    
    ...which only appeared two decades later, and where Guérin attributed 
    the name to Gervais:
    
    https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24480337
    
    Cheers, L -
    
    
    On 4/7/20 10:38 PM, Carlos Alberto Martínez Muñoz via Taxacom wrote:
    > Dear Taxacomers,
    > Not too often the original reference of a name remains elusive. However,
    > for years a bibliographical frontier has been impassable. The name in
    > question is *Scolopendra sagraea*. It was published by Paul Gervais in 1837
    > but without the "N. sp." or "Nov. sp." he typically used in that paper.
    > Gervais cited among the references "*Sc. Sagraea* Guer. Voyage à Cuba de M.
    > de la Sagra, Entomol. msc.". It is clear that he attributed the name
    > to Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville. What it is not clear to me is if Gervais
    > referred a publication or a manuscript. I think that Gervais just got bored
    > of writing "Guerin Iconogr. Règn. anim. insectes, ined.". His citations
    > were not necessarily consistent, like "Leach, British Cyclopedia suppl. 1"
    > and "Leach, Encycl. brit. suppl. 1". Nevertheless, the reference to
    > "Voyage..." is suspicious.
    > The page in question is at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2254820
    > I search for answers online every two years since 2014, without luck. Maybe
    > you will know or see what has escaped to me. Any thoughts?
    >
    > Kind regards,
    > Carlos
    >
    > Carlos A. Martínez Muñoz
    > Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit
    > FI-20014 University of Turku
    > Finland
    > ResearchGate profile
    > <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Martinez-Munoz>
    > Myriapod Morphology and Evolution
    > <https://www.facebook.com/groups/205802113162102/>
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