[Taxacom] The Evenhuis Nirvana

[Bob Mesibov]

Thanks, Ken, but I mentioned my Victorian conundrum only to give a real-life
  example.

  To make the point clearer, imagine that Neal's arthropod survey was in 
Rhode
  Island, and that all the participating taxonomists were living in Rhode
  Island. The Four Doubts I listed (and there are undoubtedly others) could
  slow the production rate of papers even in such a small, handy sampling
  area. If the sampling area is Fiji and the taxonomists live half a world
  away, there's a complicating factor.

  As for encouraging local collectors, of course I've done that over many
  years. Gone out on field trips with locals to show them microhabitats and
  collecting tricks, presented snazzy PowerPoints to local groups to 
interest
  them in the fauna, published pleas for specimens in relevant newsletters,
  named new species after local collectors, enlisted support from land
  management agencies and committees, got write-ups in local newspapers, 
gave
  radio interviews (and even took a Victorian radio presenter and her 
digital
  voice recorder out with me on a collecting trip). Net result: 3 wonderful
  local collectors, all in Tasmania.

  The complicating factor here is that my specialty is bugs. For every 100
  humans there is one bird- or mammal-nut, and for every bird- or mammal-nut
  there is 0.01 of an invertebrate fancier. Again, such is life.
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Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195

Australian Millipedes Checklist
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/millipedes/index.html
Tasmanian Multipedes
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/multipedes/mulintro.html
Spatial data basics for Tasmania
http://www.utas.edu.au/spatial/locations/index.html
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