Deciduphagus augustinus

[Kondla, Norbert SRM:EX]

Recent authors suggest that D.. augustinus and D. iroides are separate
species (Kondla 1999, Guppy & Shepard 2001).  This is equally as plausible
if not more plausible than the lumped interpretation that has been
fashionable for some time and for which there is zero published support.
Dos Passos (1943) addressed this issue briefly but retained them as distinct
species as did dos Passos (1964).  Dos Passos (1970) subsequently
synonymized the taxa on the basis of what Clench had to say in a _field
guide_  (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1961).  But the problem is that Clench said
absolutely nothing as a reason for lumping these taxa.  Read my lips, Clench
gave ZERO reason for his lumping of these taxa.  Somehow this completely (to
my knowledge) undocumented and unsupported lump has been accepted as the
taxonomic wisdom of the day. A shocking situation. The fact that other
authors have used the lumped interpretation most certainly does not make it
a scientific fact or even a reasonable interpretation.  The lumpers, to my
knowledge, have never published anything to support the lumped
interpretation, which could be right. I want to see some convincing data
before I will believe what the lumpers have to say about this or any other
issue. See -- we can all legitimately use the 'convincing data' argument :-)
Lets see if the lumpers can take what they dish out :-) PS. Hope nobody
takes offence, this is a good-natured jibe to get folks to cough up some
data rather than continuing to cough up lumping as some kind of good science
-- meanwhile we must all continue to make our own decisions about what names
and taxonomic constructs to use when we write something. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       



 
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