Dear colleagues,
For every taxonomic group, there are several critical papers which should be
found and understood. The list may be easily found in several sources, and
large libraries may have a fairly complete access to them. That's fine, but
what about the experience?
Linda Warren is probably still active. Pat Hutchings collaborated with her
(and S. Doyle) in the recent revision of Mediomastus. Of course, these three
colleagues should be taken into account and consulted looking for some
advice. There is someone else who may have a similar experience and that,
despite the fact she is always very busy, has such knowledge that must be
included for any advice on capitellids (and many other groups): Leslie
Harris.
Together with other members of Scamit, Leslie has been painstakingly
studying methyl green methods, especially with Californian fauna. However,
she has managed to take her vacation time to visit several museums and
collections to study several groups. This is really impressive, indeed, but
she has still more: she has participated in sampling programs or in studying
collections from many World areas, such that her experience and knowledge on
several groups are really amazing. She has thousands of pages including
notes, descriptions and illustrations which should be published. Hope she
finds the time to do that. Meanwhile, I'm sure she will be happy to share
some of her ideas.
We must, as a scientific society, take advantage of the experience of our
former and current colleagues. Perhaps, most of it is published already, but
there is an important amount of ideas that have not reached paper yet. Hope
we can find the time to be more generous by sharing our views with others,
so that our research is improved. Un abrazo,
Sergio