Hello friends,
In seeing this exchange, and documentation about a copepod parasitic in a
polychaete, I am sadly reminded that Dr. Arthur G. Humes, the master of
parasitic copepod systematics, passed away in late October at the age of
83. Dr. Humes was here in Woods Hole and to me was a reminder of the
long tradition of taxonomic studies in this region. He was the author of
more than 250 papers and described over 700 new species of copepods!
In a career spanning 60 years, that is an average of 11.7 species per
year! To put this in perspective, there are some people out there who are
considered taxonomists that will not describe 11 new species in their
lifetime.
I first met Dr. Humes in the late 1970's. At that time he was Professor and
Director of the Boston University Marine Program in Woods Hole. He was
major professor of several graduate students including Nancy Maciolek,
who did her dissertation on spionid polychaetes. Other students he guided
worked on coastal ecology problems and of course, copepods. He was the
editor of the Journal of Crustacean Biology for nearly 20 years.
As part of various benthic surveys conducted over the years, we often
encountered polychaetes that were infested with copepods. Arthur was our
"go to" person for information. We gradually supplied him with polychaetes
of various families (paraonids, spionids, lumbrinerids, terebellids, etc.) that
were obviously parasitized by copepods. One in particular, I remember
quite well. It was a large hesionid, Hesiospina vestimentifera, described by
me from hydrothermal vents on the Galapagos Rift. The polychaete was
the largest specimen I had ever seen of this species and was infested with
30 or more prominent copepods. That specimen along with Dr. Humes
entire collection is being transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and will
be available for future generations to study.
At a time when we desperately need highly trained taxonomists to deal with
the growing backlog of biodiversity data, we cannot afford to lose people
like Dr. Humes. I feel very privileged to have known him and to have been
considered a friend. He will be missed.
James A. Blake
ENSR Marine & Coastal Center
89 Water Street
Woods Hole, Masschusetts 02543
<jablake at ix.netcom.com>
-- ANNELIDA LIST
Discuss = <annelida at net.bio.net> = talk to all members
Server = <biosci-server at net.bio.net> = un/subscribes
Archives = http://www.bio.net:80/hypermail/ANNELIDA/
Resources = http://biodiversity.uno.edu/~worms/annelid.html
--
