On Fri, 5 Jul 1996, Petersen, Mary E. {ZMUC} wrote:
...
> Robin, are you ready to tell us which families you are working on, and the
> approximate number of taxa (genera and species) in each of them?
>> Mary
> ------
> Mary E. Petersen
> Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen
...
Mary, and others,
Yes, of course, I should mention what families were first up (in no
particular order): Syllidae, Sabellidae, Paraonidae, Capitellidae,
Maldanidae, Glyceridae, Phyllodocidae, Orbiniidae, Hesionidae. The
reason for such a hotch-potch is that priorities have been dictated by a
variety of factors, none of which is phylogeny! Level of treatment, and
the likely usefullness of these databases beyond southern Australia
varies considerably. For example, the Sabellidae, Maldanidae,
Orbiniidae and Phyllodocidae databases should be useful at generic level
globally. Some others, notably Syllidae and Hesionidae at present,
avoid the genus level entirely and merely attempt to distinguish syllid 1
- syllid n as species without worrying too much about generic placement.
Mostly I have incorporated stable generic revisions where they are
available, so that the Sabellidae database closely matches Kirk
Fitzhugh's revision, as does the Phyllodocidae with Fredrik Pleijel's
work. Remember everyone that the clients are those doing routine
identifications of benthic collections in southern Australia; accurate
generic placement of species is at present an optional extra.
When the databases are ready for distribution I will write a "readme"
file to accompay them which explains the goals and failings of the
project in more detail. Anyway, enough for now.
bye
Robin
_____________________________________________________________________
Robin Wilson rwilson at mov.vic.gov.au
Museum of Victoria
71 Victoria Crescent telephone 61-3 9284 0216
Abbotsford Victoria fax 61-3 9416 0475
Australia 3067
_____________________________________________________________________
