The real battle is beyond today

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Another example of something that needs attention is Erynnis taxonomy,
especially the putative species E. persius, E. pacuvius, E. afranius -- and
recently I have begun to wonder about icelus also.  About 35 to 40 years ago
a young graduate student published his views on the topic. Kinda dated stuff
and the taxonomy seemed to be an application of the genitalic species
concept more than anything else. If yer lookin fer some projects; there are
plenty out there :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Gatrelle [mailto:gatrelle at tils-ttr.org]
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2001 12:13 PM
To: Leps-l
Subject: The real battle is beyond today


By now I hope readers know that I am very serious about moving beyond
today - the taxa in need of protection today. This is a very fast paced
world. Those of us who are on the side of God's little creatures need to
get ahead of the ax and  plow and do more now on behalf of the unknown
bioelements of our shared world. Our motto at TILS - "We can not protect
that which we do not know" - is not just a catchy little saying, it is a
horrible truth. It ranks right up there with "Those who forget history are
doomed to relive it."

When I did a paper a couple of years ago on Friedlander's Asterocampa
taxonomy, Friedlander himself was consulted for his review and comments.
Several of his comments were published in my paper. (For those who don't
get TTR it's too bad as there is lots of though provoking stuff in these
papers.)
My paper was critical of his lumping. He explained that his lumping was a
result of him coming to the realization that a whole lot more work needed
to be done on this genus. In other words his lumping of western taxa was
not an indication of a taxonomic simplicity or finality on his part. It was
just the opposite. It was, in his words,"...the complex relationships of
the western populations (coupled with his conservative approach) in the
face of the unknown...", that resulted in what he produced on paper.

A bottom line is that he said, "I am not debating the distinctiveness or
isolation of the western populations - they will all eventually need formal
names, if they survive extinction. But there are many, many, more such
populations than subpallida, montis, cocles, and the one A. celtis I left
unnamed in Mexico (and A. clyton louisa). But if it helps to have a name
[to provide protection to taxa], resurrect it now! I prefer to wait until
the phylongeny is done right."

There we have it. The ivory tower of academic debate (wait till the
phylogeny...)and the real world (they will all need names - and - if they
survive extinction).

(By the way I find Tim Friedlander a great and honorable man.) This is not
about people it is about taxonomic philosophy. My published comment on his
work was this. "Why sink a subspecies we know will one day be validly
resurrected just because it needs to be defined in a more accurate way? If
some of the demoted taxa are not truly synonymous with (the same thing as)
the subspecies they were placed under, then the only thing accomplished in
sinking them was the replacement of an inaccurate subspeciation with an
inaccurate synonymy."

People (e.g. Brock's Arizona book) think they have followed Friedlander in
going along with his sunken synonymy. They haven't. He himself acknowledges
that there are valid taxonomic rungs to be filled. He wasn't saying forget
em, he was saying study them more - reshuffle the deck and deal again.

I hope his undescribed subspecies in Mexico still survives. Never named is
never known, except as a footnote in a Friedlander comment in TTR or by
those few who inhabit the ivory towers. Plus, there is no money in
Asterocampa or Noctuidae.

Ron


 
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