Dear Stephanie

I'm looking for a G.A.Clark from Australia, who collected in 1990 some
snails near a limestone cave, 40 km North of Brastagi (Sumatra, Indonesia).
I like to contact him or her. I was also at a limestone cave near Brastagi
and i wonder if this is the same locality. Last year a small paper is
published in Basteria with descriptions of three new species from this
place, a new paper is almost ready with descriptions of more species.
Maby you or somebody else could help me.

Greetings, Wim

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van:  Stephanie Clark [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Verzonden:    donderdag 20 juli 2000 18:58
> Aan:  [log in to unmask]
> Onderwerp:    Re: use of unpublished names
>
> Andrew S and others
>
> As has already been mentioned it is very unwise to use an unpublished name
> when referring to a potentially undescribed species. For several reasons -
> amongst which is there is now a record of the name you mentioned on the
> internet and which other people can now find and technically cite. It is
> also not wise to mention the unpublished name because you could
> accidentally provide enough information about the specimen in a
> newsletter,
> newspaper, etc for it to become a valid name. Now this can cause some
> major
> problems especially for the person who was originally thinking of
> describing the species that you have now become the official author of
> etc.
>
> Another reason not to refer to an unpublished name is that the person who
> originally thought the shell was different may have changed their mind on
> getting additional specimens and taking into consideration other factors
> such as reproductive anatomy, radular morphology, protoconch morphology,
> opercular morphology, egg capsule morphology, breeding behaviour, allozyme
> data (proteins, enzyme data), DNA data etc. (Which I might add
> particularly
> for most supposed new species of Cones, Cowries and Volutes virtually none
> of the above are used to justify the new species this especially goes for
> reproductive anatomy and genetic data.)  (Just to back this up a little of
> the 1600 papers dealing with molluscan allozymes (proteins) I have found
> while doing my Masters and PhD none mention Cones, Volutes or Cowries
> which
> are the most popular shells collected.)
>
> The best way to refer to a shell which you or others thinks is new is by
> saying something like the following:   Cypraea sp A. or Cypraea sp 210 or
> Cypraea sp nov from Port Lincoln or Cypraea gold form SA etc.
>
> By referring to the shell in some way like the above the shell has some
> sort of tag to suggest that it might be new or different in some way, but
> prevents you or some one else from inadvertently making the name
> scientifically available before the original author had planned to.
>
> So I hope the above makes it a bit more clearer as to some of the reasons
> you should not mention an  unpublished name.
>
>
> Stephanie (who should be doing PhD stuff)
>
>
> **************************************************************************
> ****
> Stephanie A. Clark
>
> Invertebrate Identification
> Unit 4/17 Morris Street
> PO Box 418
> Summer Hill, NSW 2130
> Australia
>
> phone  61 (02) 9799 5689  fax  61 (02) 9799 5610  mobile  0412 372388
> email [log in to unmask]