Dear Ross,

Interesting topic. There may be a few explanations.
First of all, Linnaeus's system was not yet "universally" adopted, e.g.
Martini & Chemnitz.
Second, many of Linnaeus's students/pupils were botanists, among them the
well known Gmelin, who wrote Flora Sibirica and Flora Orientalis and
Gronovius, who accidently described some molluscs.
Europe was still dependant on whar occasionally was brought in, mostly
larger, shallow water species. Sometimes, differences between species were
not clear.
The costs of printing a book was relatively very expensive, mainly for the
happy few.
In other phyla, e.g. arthropods, there are however books. On insects I
found within five minutes the following authors:
Hufnagel, 1766
Schrank, 1781
Dennis & Schiffermüller, 1775
Fabricius, 1775 [who also described Serripes groenlandicus, Cardiidae]
Clerck, 1758 [Aranei Svecica]
Esper, 1789
Scopoli, 1763 (also author of the genus name Cassis]
Forster, 1771
Goeze, 1777
DeGeer, 1774
and, of course, Müller, 1774
Most of these deal with butterflies and beetles.

Gijs


----------
> Van: Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]>
> Aan: [log in to unmask]
> Onderwerp: Why only Muller between 1767 and 1792
> Datum: woensdag 14 juni 2000 2:35
>
> There may be a simple explanation, but it has always seemed odd to me
> that from Linneues' establishing of the modern binomial system in 1758,
> hardly any molluscs appear to have been described before Hwass in 1792,
> except for Chemnitz and Muller, and Linne himself: during this 34 year
> period, it seems that one can count the number of Molluscan taxonomy
> papers on the fingers of one or two hands - why????  Virtually
> everything was in need of a binomial name then, and explorers must have
> been dragging new species back to Europe at a brisk pace - so why were
> so few eager scientists, amateur or otherwise, involved in describing
> new species?  Is this also the case in other phyla??
>
> Enquiring minds want to know, in the the Great Still-chilly North (risk
> of frost last nite - was 36 F on my doorstep!),
> Ross.