To those interested

(I have already tired to send this once
apparently my work address does not work at the moment)

Firstly some small corrections to some of the
information about types. Only Holotype, Syntype,
Lectotype and Neotype are considered primary or
name being types. Paratype(s) and
paralectotype(s) are secondary types and as such
are generally not considered quite as important
as primary. I like Paul have no problem with
people having paratypes in their collection
especially if there are a bunch to go round.
Therefore, holotypes should not be kept in small
private collections or bought and sold as such,
their value in dollar terms is relatively
trivial, however, they are irreplaceable and  are
basically forever. As Paul and Dick have pointed
out previously what was done in the past is not
always a good reason to continue to do things now or into the future.

Topotypes as has already been pointed out are
specimens collected from the type location, these
are usually collected after the species was
originally named. However, these could also have
been part of the original sample but were not
before the person who named the species eg I
might collect a sample of land snails say 100
specimens, I send twenty to Barry Roth, he
determines they are a new species and the
material I initially sent him is enough to
describe the species he may even send me one of
the paratypes, but the specimens that I didn't
send him have no official standing as type
specimens but they can be called topotypes.

John Abba made the following comment "Will
eveybody that has these Holotypes in their
private collection give them up??  It does come
to a huge number of specimens. Probaly put it to the tens of thousands"

I am curious how does John know that there are
"thousands" of holotypes in private hands? This
suggests to me that he has the concept of what a
holotype is mixed up a little. As far as I am
aware there are relatively few holotypes of
molluscs in private hands. On the other hand
there is certainly a lot of material in private
collections that could indeed represent new taxa
and that there particular specimens could form
part of the type series. The vast majority of
existing holotypes are spread around the major and minor museums of the world.

I know that the following major museum
collections: Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia;
The Australian Museum, Sydney; Natural History
Museum, London; Nationaal Natuurhistorisch
Museum, Leiden; Museum für Naturkunde,
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Musée National
d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; United States
National Museum, Smithsonian Institute,
Washington DC.; Naturmuseum Senckenberg,
Frankfurt among many others contain most of the
worlds type specimens, with the ones named
probably together holding about 75% of them. The
largest collections are those held in London,
Paris, Philadelphia and Washington.


Stephanie

******************************************************************************
Dr Stephanie A. Clark

Malacologist / Assistant Collections Manager
Chicago Academy of Sciences
4001 N Ravenswood Ave, Ste 201
Chicago, IL 60613-2576 USA
Phone: 1 (773) 477 4295 FAX: 1 (773) 755 5199
Mobile 1 (205) 310 9942
email [log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------