Hi everyone,
I have been working on a manuscript on the dispersal of bdelloid rotifers -my
other love affair- since last December. A frequently suggested dispersal
route for most invertebrates is wind transport, which I discussed in my
manuscript. Then I did a literature search and came upon the following paper
that had just come out: KIRCHNER, CH., KRÄTZNER, R. & WELTER-SCHULTES, F. W.
(1997): Flying snails - how far can Truncatellina (Pulmonata: Vertiginidae)
be blown over the sea? -- Journal of Molluscan Studies 63: 479-487. I
realized that this was a very relevant work, but unfortunately I don't have
easy access to molluscan journals, plus I figured that that issue of the
journal may have not even arrived at the U.S. libraries yet. So, I had all
but given up hope of reading the article before I have to mail my manuscript
this saturday when I searched the Internet for an unrelated subject,
Albinaria, a genus of land snails common in Turkey. And I hit upon the
homepage of Francisco Welter-Schultes who studies Albinaria in Crete. When I
came to the end of the page where he had his publications listed, I realized
that he was one of the authors of the paper I needed. I quickly sent him an
e-mail and asked for more information and a reprint. Since then we have
exchanged several messages. It turned out that reprints were not available
yet. And then this morning came another message: he had just put the paper up
on his home page. If you are curious you can find it at
http://gwdu19.gwdg.de/~fwelter/flyingsnails
 
Now I can use their data and arguments in my manuscript which is due in 2
days.
 
What would we do without the Internet?
 
A.