how to describ a new species?

[timoinsects]

i see that some private hobbiests to be as a emtomologist too. they do not work in a insects research institude/department but they did published new species before and in a need of thouse uncommon insects from different countries of their interested families/genus. so they probably will describ a new species if they have specimen?
so.... questions,
1,how to know if a insect species has been discribed/recorded or not? as from a genus,there're different sp. how do you know if your holding specimen is the one that has not been described/recored?
2,if making sure this specimen has not been described before,so..,what knowledge would be needed for discribing this sp.?
3,where to publish? is directly/firstly publish to any magzine? or....?
4...your ideas...

i totally have no idea...
hope anyone who knows this will give some infomation.

thanks! ;D

[nomihoudai]

Short answer:

1. Literature
2. Literature
3. Literature

Long answer:

1. First you must classify the specimen as good as possible. You have to do research in Literature to know what Genera exist and what is the rule to be a member of that genus. After that you have to check what species exist in that genus and compare them with your specimen. IMPORTANT, you also have to check other genera because you may have made a mistake in determining the genus or somebody else has done so ( which is pretty common, people even manage to get families wrong ... ). If you want to do it right you not only have to consider the morphology of the specimen but also ecology, distribution, DNA sometimes... this is the hard part, especially the ecology.

2. Not much, you only need to publish a paper in a magazine and give it a new name that has not been occupied so far.

3. Magazines, there is many of them around. Usually it is best to try to get into a magazine that has something to do with the place you are about to study ( it is not of interest to publish an African species and a Neotropical Society's magazine) and a paper that gets read by many people so people see your new species.

4. Get into contact with specialists first, there is so many synonyms out there, the world doesn't need more of them.

[timoinsects]

morphology of the specimen but also ecology, DNA,

YES. the hard parts. DNA,this requries "machine",the perfessional facilities. so i guess some amateur entomologists may had coopreation with the perfessional research departments?

and,comparing specimens,is this a MUST?
if yes,but the holotype specimen was stored in the institudes, normally uneasy to lend or even for taking a look. many problems.

[timoinsects]

for publishing up to the magazine,requires any qualifications for private "publisher"?

[timoinsects]

and Literature,it is perhaps not so easy to find ,have to study many Literatures,overseas and domestic.
some Literature does not contain all recorded sp. from a certain genus, for example. only introduce some relative common sp. i had a book <moths of china>,yet some of my collected moths can not be found pictures from that book. so they were not recored before? no.
it is a hard job.

[africaone]

the best way to start is to read a maximum of papers (espacially those that concern the same group you study).
You will learn many things about how and what to do !
Also having a "friend" that can help you in the first steps is very useful.

a preliminary work must be done before any publication. there are journals such as Zoological records that needs to be consulted to record all the names available in the groups you are working on. Depending the groups, there may be yet existing serious study that can help you and allow to gain time.

Thierry

[nomihoudai]

> if yes,but the holotype specimen was stored in the institudes

Very often you don't need the holotype, just compare to a specimen that is identified 100% correctly, compare to the describtion and picture of holotype, if you then are still not sure then you need to see the holotype yourself.

> for publishing up to the magazine,requires any qualifications for private "publisher"?

No qualification, if the article is good they will print it. In "peer-reviewed" magazines they will check your article before printing it, then people have proof it is good. Best thing to do is ask a specialist and publish with him together.

> yet some of my collected moths can not be found pictures from that book. so they were not recored before? no.

Sometimes you have not the book where they are in.
Sometimes they are new.

It is a difficult process and nobody said it is easy

Best thing to do is sort your moth by family and subfamily and then find a specialist that wants to help you with your specimens.

[africaone]

Jun 5, 2011 9:58:23 GMT -8 nomihoudai said:

>

just compare to a specimen that is identified 100% correctly, compare to the describtion and picture of holotype,

be careful, only holotype can be used as reference ... not examining it provided a lot of errors and synonyms in the past ! espacially for old descriptions, it is absolutely necessar to read and respect the Code of Zoological nomenclature to know what is the exact referent !

[nomihoudai]

Of course the holotype is the reference, but for example:

I find 1 butterfly of genus X that is green, and there is 5 species in the genus that are known by litterature to be red I don't need to travel half the globus just to get to the holotype.

Also if somebody with good knowledge gives you a specimen with 100% certainty to be a species you don't need immediately to run after the holotype of course there may be an error but then the mistake is on you for trusting the wrong people

Today I saw an Aglais io, I don't need to get to London to see the holotype for this.

Of course if there is subtle species you absolutely have to check the holotype but
a) He would be better off in that case not to describe anything without specialist help and
b) better check more than just morphology of imago to separate the species.