>I wish to know how many new taxa are described every years (or the last
>years) ?

Phillipe Bouchet, at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, has
the most thorough study on this that I know of.  I forget what journal, but
he has published some results.

>I wish to know, too, how many new taxa are described by amateur people ?

This is very difficult to determine and depends on the definition.  Several
people whose income comes from another job spend lots of time working on
mollusks and may have official volunteer status at a museum.  Also, someone
might teach a different subject at a university but also work on shells in
his spare time.  Thus, looking at an article to see the listed affiliation
of the author does not necessarily indicate whether the person might be
considered an amateur.  I do not know of any study directly addressing this
topic.


Dr. David Campbell
"Old Seashells"
Department of Geological Sciences
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315 USA
[log in to unmask], 919-962-0685, FAX 919-966-4519

"He had discovered an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus"-E. A. Poe, The
Gold Bug