Smithsonian Research Articles

Phyllis Diller and her fictional husband Fang

Legendary comic Phyllis Diller carved out a career in a male dominated field by goinginto spaces where women were not typically allowed. She created a stage persona thatgave her the ability to make fun of life and society. Part of her stage act was her fictional husband Fang and his cartoon-like family members including an obese mother, an alcoholic father, a scheming brother, a tooth-pick thin sister, a half-wit uncle, a midget cousin, and a slew of other family members of various design. Relying on Diller’s 52,000 joke cards archived at the Smithsonian Institution and her videotaped performances, this paper will track the history of Fang and his family and how they fit into the comedic work of Diller. A deep dive into Fang’s real and fictional history will reveal the complex worldview Diller imparts about husbands, marriage, and men in general and about American culture and life.

Submersibles Greatly Enhance Research on the Diversity of Deep-Reef Fishes in the Greater Caribbean

Understanding the diversity and ecology of deep-reef fishes is challenging. Due to intensive and widely dispersed sampling, the Greater Caribbean (GC) fauna of species found on shallow reefs is much better characterized than the fauna of deep-reef species restricted to mesophotic (40–130 m) and rariphotic (130–300 m) depths. Our knowledge about deep-reef fishes is based on ship-board sampling and the recent use of rebreather diving, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), baited remote underwater videos, and crewed submersibles. Submersible research on GC deep-reef fishes began in the 1960s and has flourished over the last decade through research by the Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Here we quantify the contribution of submersible research, particularly the surge by DROP, to our understanding of the diversity of the deep-reef fish fauna of the GC. We compared shallow- and deep-reef fish faunas of three GC sites subjected to DROP research to faunas of three sites without such research. DROP increased the size of the deep faunas at three islands ∼9-fold, and they have deep-reef faunas ∼2–4 times the size of those of the other three sites. Those deep-reef faunas have high proportions of small cryptobenthic fishes, which also represent a major component of shallow faunas. That research increased the rate of discovery (collection) of new species of deep-reef fishes ∼6-fold and accounts for 31% of the deep-reef species first discovered within the GC. Substantial numbers of new species at each of the three DROP islands were not found at the other two. This indicates that other parts of the GC likely harbor many undetected deep-reef fishes, and that the size of the deep-reef fauna of the GC is significantly underestimated. These results show that small research submersibles are versatile, highly productive tools for deep-reef studies. They allow long-duration dives at any depth, while offering unparalleled views of their surroundings to study the ecology of deep-reef fishes (e.g., DROP’s definition of the rariphotic assemblage from fish depth distributions). Submersibles can efficiently collect reef fishes of a broad range of taxa, ecotypes and sizes, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the regional GC deep-reef fish fauna.

Lessons Learned: A Reflection of Five Years of Engaging Educators with Digital Museum Resources

This article reports lessons learned from educator need-centered professional development offerings (PD) on accessing and using digital museum resources through the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL), a free, interactive platform for discovering digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing with communities of learners. Since the platform launched in late 2015, the Smithsonian Office of Education Technology has engaged more than 20,000 educators on the use of the SLL through PD that was offered both in-person and digitally, synchronously and asynchronously, frequently through partners within the network of Smithsonian Affiliate museums. Results from more than 1,100 aggregated surveys, 50 in-depth interviews, and five focus groups were triangulated and demonstrated that PD was associated with increased participants’ awareness of, skills in, and frequency in using the SLL, creating, and sharing content, and overall satisfaction with the platform. Educators, especially those who participated in PD, agreed with statements about successfully achieving student learning outcomes when using SLL in classrooms. Findings highlighted the importance of cultivating long-term, supportive relationships with PD participants and partners and offering consistently available support with museum staff well beyond the workshops. They also pointed to the value of user-centered marketing research and strategies to broaden the reach of digital learning resources. As museums and cultural organizations work to meet the increasing demand to engage educators digitally, these concrete lessons can be adapted and applied to institutions that provide access to digital resources to educators.

The centenary of IAVCEI 1919-2019 and beyond: origins and evolution of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior.

IAVCEI originated in 1919 as one of the six inaugural “sections” of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). IUGG was formed by the International Research Council, which has now evolved to become the International Science Council (ISC). In 1933 the Section for Volcanology was renamed the International Association of Volcanology (IAV), and in 1967, it became the International Association of Volcanology and Geochemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI). IAVCEI has been managed by 22 Presidents, 10 Secretaries-General, and their executive committees/bureaus. IAVCEI has always had a focus on facilitating the communication of volcanological research through organising a variety of international conferences, including IAVCEI General Assemblies, Scientific Assemblies, occasional Volcanological Congresses, and Cities on Volcanoes conferences. In addition, IAVCEI established research working groups initially which then became the association’s research commissions. The research commissions have also organised their own research workshops. Recently IAVCEI has also developed new groupings of researchers through their Network program, including the Early Career Researcher Network, which focus mostly on facilitating communication. Bulletin of Volcanology has been the official IAVCEI journal since 1924 and has undergone several facelifts in its cover and format. It has been very well served by its 11 volunteer editors, editorial board, and reviewers in almost 100 years of publication. In addition, IAVCEI was instrumental in instigating an inventory of known volcanoes through its Catalogue of the Volcanoes of the World series, a role now undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution. To acknowledge outstanding achievements in volcanological research, IAVCEI has established 6 awards since 1974. Developing a better understanding of how volcanoes erupt and the impacts of eruptions on society has been an integral responsibility of IAVCEI as the learned international association in volcanology. In the 1990s, IAVCEI initiated the Decade Volcanoes program to encourage research on 16 volcanoes that were deemed to pose significant risks to the communities around them. Some have erupted since then, but eruptions from other volcanoes have also provided significant insights into eruption processes and phenomena. Although IAVCEI’s future looks healthy, there are ways of being more proactive in improving services to members, including improving diversity and inclusiveness, greater gender balance for all positions on the IAVCEI Executive Committee, widening the representation of nationalities that serve on the Executive Committee, increasing membership numbers to generate greater income to support scientists in need of support to participate in IAVCEI activities, and significantly lowering the fee for open access publication of research papers in IAVCEI’s masthead journal, Bulletin of Volcanology.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00445-021-01509-5.

A review of monotreme (Monotremata) evolution

Advances in dating and systematics have prompted a revision of monotreme evolution to refine the timing of adaptative trends affecting body size and craniodental morphology. The oldest known monotreme, Teinolophos trusleri, is restricted to uppermost Barremian deposits of the Strzelecki Group in Victoria, Australia. Its body mass is estimated at ∼40 g, making it the smallest known monotreme. Teinolophos trusleri likely possessed an electro-sensitive and/or mechano-sensitive ‘bill’ or ‘beak’, which we suggest evolved for insectivory in seasonally dark Early Cretaceous polar forests. During the early Albian–mid-Cenomanian, monotremes diversified in Australia and evolved body masses greater than 4 kg, becoming amongst the largest Mesozoic mammals. A gap of 35 million years subsequently separates the youngest Mesozoic monotremes from the oldest Cenozoic monotreme, Monotrematum sudamericanum, which is a Paleocene stem ornithorhynchid from southern South America. We also hypothesize that tachyglossids originated in Melanesia, perhaps on the emergent Vogelkop landmass, and then dispersed to Australia during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. Finally, we present a classification of Monotremata to include five families—Teinolophidae fam. nov., Kollikodontidae, Steropodontidae, Ornithorhynchidae, and Tachyglossidae. We also propose a new genus, Murrayglossus gen. nov. for a gigantic Pleistocene echidna from southwestern Western Australia. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E39E2644-DADD-49F4-B2B7-47A25C072B07 Timothy F. Flannery [tim.flannery@textpublishing.com.au], Kristofer M. Helgen [Kris.Helgen@Australian.Museum], Australian Museum, 1 William St Sydney 2000, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Tim Ziegler [tziegler@museum.vic.gov.au], Museums Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; Patricia Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu; prich@swin.edu.au], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Swinburne University of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Elizabeth Grace Veatch [elizabeth.veatch@gmail.com], National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.

Keeping Ourselves Collected: Culture Labs Confront the Smithsonian’s Imperial Legacy

ABSTRACT The Smithsonian Institution’s public narrative often glosses over the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842), the historic endeavor led by Charles Wilkes that seized over 4000 specimens, artifacts, and human remains throughout Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the western coasts of the Americas, which later became the foundation of the Smithsonian’s collections. Today, the Smithsonian is revered for holding one of the world’s most expansive collections, a world-class resource for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Yet, the framework of the Smithsonian as a flagship for American exceptionalism is in growing tension with campaigns to highlight communities of color which are increasingly intersectional, fluid, and diasporic. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center has met these challenges by introducing Culture Labs to instill emerging practices and community principles. This paper investigates the history and implications of museum programming and education practices that engage and transmute the imperial legacies of institutions.

Objects in Frames: Displaying Foreign Collectibles in Early Modern China and Europe by Anna Grasskamp

Reviewed by: Objects in Frames: Displaying Foreign Collectibles in Early Modern China and Europe by Anna Grasskamp Andrea Bubenik Grasskamp, Anna, Objects in Frames: Displaying Foreign Collectibles in Early Modern China and Europe, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 2019; hardback; pp. 246; 81 colour, 12 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €39.00; ISBN 9783496016243. What does it mean to frame collectible objects, as opposed to paintings, or works on paper? How is the framing of objects culturally determined? Does framing always render context irrelevant? This ambitious book proposes a transcultural approach to these questions and focuses on a variety of compelling case studies from China and Europe. Rather than offer a solely empirical or comparative approach, the philosophical and sociological dimensions of framing are also probed, with the author also showing a keen eye for the nuances of cultural difference. The concept of a frame has been much discussed regarding the two dimensional, but less attention has been paid to how three-dimensional objects have historically been framed and displayed. A great strength here is the focus on porcelain and coral fragments which were highly valued in the burgeoning court collections of the period. While the Kunstkammern and curiosity cabinets of Europe are well-known, less attention has been given to correspondent Chinese systems of display. Indeed, Anna Grasskamp’s book challenges the binary divisions of ‘Europe’ and ‘Asia’, ‘Netherlandish’, or ‘Chinese’, and instead allows for a more fluid and comparative approach to probe culturally defined systems of collecting and display. Chapter 1 focuses on how ‘foreign’ goods, including Chinese porcelain, were framed and mounted in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Kunstkammern. Chapter 2 takes the same approach but in the Chinese context, considering how European astronomical instruments were reframed at Chinese courts. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the framing of foreign and natural objects in European Renaissance and Chinese Ming Dynasty collections. These chapters, with their focus on refashioned coral, are especially strong, probing how coral was perceived in both cultures as transformative ‘matter’ and related to resurrections and metamorphoses with Christ and Ovid on the one hand, and Buddhist worship on the other. Grasskamp rightfully points to the landmark publication of Exhibiting Cultures (Smithsonian Institute, 1991), and it is in this lineage that her book should be considered. The recent Getty publication of Samuel Quiccheberg’s Inscriptiones of 1565 (Getty Publications, 2013), one of the first museological texts, will also heighten interest in the themes and issues raised here. Overall, there is a sense that it is important to tend to the lives of objects, especially in the early modern period, an era that is increasingly recognized as global not only for its trade routes but also the circulation of objects and related ideas. [End Page 281] Andrea Bubenik The University of Queensland Copyright © 2022 Andrea Bubenik

Tuliza Fleming, Museum Curator, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution

Tuliza Fleming, Museum Curator, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution

The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War by Kenneth W. Noe

Reviewed by: The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War by Kenneth W. Noe Brian Allen Drake The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War. By Kenneth W. Noe. Conflicting Worlds. ( Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. Pp. xvi, 670. $59.95, ISBN 978-0-8071-7320-6.) For too long, Kenneth W. Noe argues, historians have forgotten that among the Civil War's most important elements were the elements—its muck and mud, dust and drought, sudden freezes and thaws, driving rain, and blistering sun. In fact, the 1860s was a decade of particularly extreme weather, he observes, and any study of tactics, strategy, and soldiering needs to reckon with that fact. With The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil [End Page 166] War, Noe thus "takes the Civil War back out in the weather and renarrates its military history" from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, with a keen eye on how the elements shaped bivouac, march, and battle (p. 1). Utilizing everything from Smithsonian Institution records to soldiers' letters, Noe reconstructs daily high/low temperatures and precipitation levels for nearly every major battle and campaign, details the lived experience of that weather, and elaborates on the ways it helped determine victory or defeat. Unsurprisingly, given its massive scope—the book clocks in at 670 pages—its conclusions are complex and varied, rather like the weather itself, but some themes emerge. Global phenomena like El Niño and the North Atlantic Oscillation were profoundly important, for they created both regional events like droughts and pressure systems that then spawned localized heatwaves, rainstorms and floods, and frosts. These, in turn, had significant and sometimes decisive impacts on action in the field, far beyond well-known examples like the Peninsula campaign. Hardly a battle or campaign unfolded—or failed to unfold—without the weather weighing in. The list of attacks, counterattacks, retreats, and pursuits that foundered on storm fronts, blizzards, swollen rivers, and muddy roads is almost endless. Most Civil War histories name-check the weather before moving on quickly to the drums and trumpets, but Noe makes Weather—with a capital W—a vital "third combatant" in every theater (p. 493). The book shines in its depictions of the weather-born miseries of men and animals. After 670 pages of unrelenting heat and rain and mud and ice, The Howling Storm begins to feel like a forced march. But that is the point; Noe's exhaustive account drives home his point that understanding the experience of Civil War combat means understanding the ecological contexts in which it occurred. Even without combat, soldiering was an exhausting, painful, disease-ridden, sometimes fatal, and always constant immersion in the elements, as Noe makes clear through his copious use of soldiers' correspondence and diaries. This was true of many wars, of course, but The Howling Storm's descriptions of mud alone—trapping wagons, halting columns, slicing boots to ribbons in frozen weather, sucking doomed men and animals into its depths in warmer times—give the Civil War the feel of the western front in World War I. They add the human element to the elements, humanizing what could have risked becoming simply a standard military history cum weather report. They also complicate Monday-morning generalship—if you think you could have easily done better than General George B. McClellan in 1862 Virginia, for instance, you might march a few miles in Chickahominy-soaked boots before passing too much judgment. In the end, Noe argues that the weather favored the Union armies to a large degree because of better and more available supplies to deal with it. The weather also may have helped end slavery. If McClellan had been successful in 1862, the war might have ended before military necessity inspired the Emancipation Proclamation. It is an interesting if counterfactual idea and one that environmental historians could ponder. The Howling Storm deliberately sticks mainly to the battlefield, but these sorts of larger arguments are among the most interesting, and it would be nice to see more of them. For instance, there are some fascinating insights into the weather's effects on food supplies, [End Page 167] but they are...

A Long Look Ahead: William L. Bray and Early Texas Conservationism

A Long Look Ahead: William L. Bray and Early Texas Conservationism Char Miller (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Ecologist William L. Bray (1865–1953) was an expert on the vegetation of western Texas and one of the state’s first conservationists; he taught at the University of Texas and Syracuse University. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2008-0060. William L. Bray seemed called to the Edwards Plateau, the dominant landform in Central Texas. Not in the religious sense, exactly. He was botanist, not a minister. But the vast, uplifted, and semi-arid terrain was the scene of some of his most important work, research he approached with special fervor. The wellspring of his fervency was at once spiritual and scientific. Bray noted this link in an address at the May 1925 dedication of the University of Texas’s new Biological Laboratories Building: “It is unthinkable that a universe so vast, so wonderful, so beautiful, so orderly, and that a creature with power to discern and appreciate all this, should be matters of chance or without motive.” However centering Bray’s Christian faith was, its focus was “turned to the business of right living and acting in this present,” a social gospel that led Bray to pursue the “betterment of human environment and of social conditions.”1 Science thus played a formative role in shaping human affairs. For Bray, this meant that botany had utility, that it should be of use to society, an argument he had announced in his dissertation. Assessing “plant life in Texas as the product of its environment,” he wrote approvingly, “lies in the growing tendency to rely upon such study to furnish a rational basis for the exploitation of plant life in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, [End Page 251] agrostology, and various other economic fields.”2 Bray made the same case twenty-seven years later at the grand opening of the university’s new laboratory. Botanists, he argued, were “concerned in what way the plant world can be induced to yield toward material human welfare.”3 That was why he was deeply interested in the “practical benefits to the people of the State growing out of the service of botanical science,” a concept the title of his address highlighted: “Botany and the State.”4 Bray’s utilitarian perspective was consistent with the defining values of his academic discipline, its professional ethos and social advocacy. Established in 1894, the Botanical Society of America promoted botanical research in American universities and colleges that would be linked to the demands of industrial capitalism, affirmed the priority of academic expertise over amateurism, and publicly supported the creation of forest reserves as part of its utilitarian credo.5 Bray embodied these professionalizing commitments during his decade-long career at the University of Texas, from 1897 to 1907. While there, he mounted a series of robust botanical investigations and rigorous ecological analyses of two regions in the state led him to develop a sophisticated set of policy recommendations for their careful, scientific management. In particular, he made a strong case for the immediate application of conservation measures to control natural-resource exploitation on the Edwards Plateau of Central Texas and in the Piney Woods of East Texas to insure these regions’ ecological stability and economic productivity across time. Bray, in short, emerged as the leading academic advocate for the implementation of a state or national regulatory presence on the ground. He had no doubt such oversight of unregulated capitalism was necessary, even if little directly came of his convictions. Bray’s zeal was manifest in his man-on-a-mission approach to life. Born [End Page 252] in Burnside, Illinois, in September 1865, the ninth of thirteen children born to William and Martha Bray, he was educated in local public schools. After high school, Bray earned a teaching degree at Missouri’s Kirkland Normal School (now Truman State University) and spent the next set of years as a teacher and administrator in Iowa and Missouri. Showing his inclination toward the social gospel, he took a twelve-month leave to direct the YMCA in Fresno, California. During his free time, the...

Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature

Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature

Review of the hyperiidean amphipod family Lycaeidae Claus, 1879 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Hyperiidea)

This is the first comprehensive taxonomic review of the family Lycaeidae. This study is based primarily on the extensive collections of the Natural History Museum, Denmark (NHMD, formerly ZMUC) and the US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA (USNM), and on additional material from the South African Museum (SAM) and in the South Australian Museum (SAMA). The two currently recognized genera in the family, Lycaea Dana, 1852 and Simorhynchotus Stebbing, 1888, are maintained with the latter still regarded monotypic with S. antennarius (Claus, 1871). Characters used to distinguish species in the past are re-evaluated in order to determine their validity. There are 15 nominal species of Lycaea in the literature, excluding Pseudolycaea pachypoda Claus, 1879 and Metalycaea globosa Stephensen, 1925. Pseudolycaea Claus, 1879 is regarded a synonym of Lycaea, as confirmed by this study, and M. globosa is a junior synonym of L. serrata Claus, 1879, as demonstrated by an examination of the type material. Of the remaining nominal species many have been synonymized with L. pulex Marion, 1874 in the past, often based on erroneous literature references. Thus, the taxonomic status of all nominal species was redetermined by the examination of type material or from the original literature reference if type material could not be found. In conclusion, ten species of Lycaea are recognized as valid, including three described as new. Lycaea bovallii Chevreux, 1900 is determined to be a valid species with the following as junior synonyms, L. gracilis Spandl, 1924, L. bajensis Shoemaker, 1925 and L. bovallioides Stephensen, 1925. It seems to be widely distributed and relatively common in the tropical regions of all the world’s oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea. The other species recognized as valid are L. lilia Volkov, 1982; L. nasuta Claus, 1879; L. pachypoda (Claus, 1879); L. pulex Marion, 1874 (L. robusta Claus, 1879, L. similis Claus, 1879 and L. pauli Stebbing, 1888 regarded junior synonyms); L. serrata Claus, 1879 and L. vincentii Stebbing, 1888 (Amphipronoe longicornuta Giles, 1888 a junior synonym). In addition, three species are described as new to science; L. intermedia sp. nov., L. proserrata sp. nov. and L. osbornae sp. nov. All were found in the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans; the former two are relatively common and widespread. All species are described and illustrated and a key is provided to facilitate their identification.

Designation of the neotype of Triatomadimidiata (Latreille, 1811) (Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae), with full integrated redescription including mitogenome and nuclear ITS-2 sequences.

The taxonomic status of Triatomadimidiata (Latreille, 1811) is, by far, the most discussed within Triatominae. Molecular studies have recovered at least three independently evolving lineages in T.dimidiata across its range. The original description of T.dimidiata (as Reduviusdimidiatus) included few taxonomic characters, and no types were assigned. To define and describe the cryptic diversity within T.dimidiata sensu lato (s.l.), a neotype must be designated. For this purpose, all 199 specimens identified as T.dimidiata from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History, ranging from Peru to Mexico, were studied. Only one specimen (from Tumbes, Peru) matched the combination of characters as listed in the original description, and it is herein formally designated as the neotype for T.dimidiata. The neotype is morphologically described and DNA sequences of its whole mitochondrial genome and the nuclear second internal transcribed spacer region (ITS2), commonly used in triatomine molecular systematics studies, are presented and compared to other publicly available sequences of T.dimidiata s.l. in GenBank. Our results suggest that T.dimidiata sensu stricto (s.s.) is somewhat rare and, therefore, unlikely to serve as a major vector of Chagas disease.

(118) Proposal to amend Article 41.5 and add an Example clarifying requirements for referring to a basionym or replaced synonym

“41.5. On or after 1 January 1953, a new combination, name at new rank, or replacement name is not validly published unless its basionym or replaced synonym is clearly indicated and a full and direct reference given to its author and place of valid publication, with page or plate reference and date (but see Art. 41.6 and 41.8). Valid publication is not achieved by reference to a new combination based on the actual basionym or replaced synonym (but see Art. 41.8), unless that new combination is the illegitimate name being replaced by a replacement name. On or after 1 January 2007, a new combination, name at new rank, or replacement name is not validly published unless its basionym or replaced synonym is cited.” “Ex. 16bis. The intended replacement name “Hemionitis atreyu” was not validly published by Christenhusz (in Christenhusz & al., Global Fl. 4: 10. 2018) because that author made no reference to the replaced synonym, Pteris acrostica Balb. (Elenco: 98. 1801), instead citing “Cheilanthes acrostica Tod., Giorn. Sci. Nat. Econ. Palermo 1: 215. 1866”, which is in fact a new combination, C. acrostica (Balb.) Tod., based on P. acrostica, which Todaro explicitly cited as the basionym.” The proposed amendments to Art. 41 of the Code (Turland & al. in Regnum Veg. 159. 2018) were initiated due to the nomenclatural case of “Hemionitis atreyu” Christenh. proposed as a replacement name (Christenhusz, l.c.). Mosyakin (in Phytotaxa 373: 164–168. 2018) initially considered it not to be a validly published name because Christenhusz did not cite the earliest replaced synonym, Pteris acrostica, and its author and place of valid publication, but cited instead a new combination, Cheilanthes acrostica, based on P. acrostica. Mosyakin (l.c.) also noted that in fact a new combination, H. acrostica (Balb.) Mosyakin (l.c. 2018: 165), not a replacement name, was required. However, in IPNI (https://www.ipni.org; accessed 30 Oct 2018 and 2 Mar 2021) the name Hemionitis atreyu was treated as an illegitimate name: “nom. illeg. nom. superfl., the epithet acrostica was available for use and should have been taken up as H. acrosticha Noronha is a nom. inval. nom. nud.” The following remark was also provided: “Although Christenh. cited a combination and not the earliest homotypic synonym, since it is a replaced synonym (not a basionym) the replacement name is nevertheless validly published” (updated nomenclatural notes made on 2018-10-26 16:25:24.0, by H.L. Lindon, as indicated in IPNI). Indeed, there seems to be no rule in the current Shenzhen Code to preclude a replaced synonym being a new combination. Accordingly, the IPNI interpretation of the situation seems to be correct and therefore Hemionitis atreyu is a validly published but illegitimate name (see a correction by Mosyakin in Phytotaxa 405: 276–277. 2019). If we accept that interpretation, a full and direct reference to any new combination based on the actual replaced synonym (i.e. without a basionym) would be sufficient for valid publication of a replacement name on or after 1 January 1953. Hemionitis atreyu could have been validated by a full and direct reference to any of the new combinations based on Pteris acrostica: Cheilanthes acrostica, Allosorus acrosticus (Balb.) Christenh., Oeosporangium acrosticum (Balb.) L. Sáez & P. Aymerich, etc. (see full synonymy in Mosyakin, l.c. 2018: 165). This interpretation, however, is against what one could presume to be the intent or meaning of Art. 41.5 requiring, for valid publication of a replacement name on or after 1 January 1953, the clear indication of the actual replaced synonym, i.e. either the earliest replaced synonym – but not new combinations based on it (but see Art. 41.8) – or the actual illegitimate name in need of replacement, and a full and direct reference to its author(s) and place of valid publication, by analogy with corresponding requirements for valid publication of a new combination or name at new rank, which requires clear indication of and reference to its basionym, which does not itself have a basionym (see Art. 6.9). It would be only logical to apply the same requirements to new combinations, names at new rank and replacement names. I am grateful to John McNeill (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. & Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and Kanchi N. Gandhi (Harvard University Herbaria and Library, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.) for their advice on nomenclatural issues and to Nicholas J. Turland (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany) and John H. Wiersema (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) for their useful comments on the manuscript and many editorial improvements.

Vicki Funk's legacy continues – The IAPT Small Collections Grant

Vicki Funk's legacy continues – The IAPT Small Collections Grant

(127–135) Proposals to add new Provisions and Recommendations to Division III of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants related to virtual participation in the Nomenclature Section

A Special-purpose Committee on Virtual Participation in the Nomenclature Section (NS) was established at the XIX International Botanical Congress in Shenzhen, China in 2017 (Wilson in Taxon 68: 160–162. 2019). The mandate of this Special-purpose Committee is “to investigate the possibility of and mechanisms for virtual participation and voting in the Nomenclature Section of an International Botanical Congress via the internet”. After discussing the concepts of virtual participation and voting, we have arrived at various suggestions, which are discussed in the accompanying report of the Committee (Landrum & al. in Taxon 70: 1399–1401. 2021). We realize that virtual or online participation in the NS would be a significant change to the International Code of nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Code, Turland & al. in Regnum Veg. 159. 2018) and can only be accepted as a change after its feasibility has been proven. Therefore, we are proposing that a trial be conducted at the NS of the next International Botanical Congress. Nevertheless, we are formally proposing additions to Div. III of the Code that can be considered near the end of the NS if the trial proves successful. “4.new1. Interested individuals or groups are to be able to observe the Nomenclature Section of an International Botanical Congress online on the World Wide Web. The Organizing Committee of the International Botanical Congress in consultation with the Bureau of Nomenclature are together responsible for ensuring that this is implemented.” “4.new2. Individuals or groups without voting rights observing the Nomenclature Section online on the World Wide Web will not be charged for this service, or a small fee will be set at the discretion of the Organizing Committee of the International Botanical Congress in consultation with the Bureau of Nomenclature.” “4.new3. Registered members of the Nomenclature Section (with voting rights) attending online on the World Wide Web (online members) will pay fees similar to those that they would pay if they attended in person.” “4.new4. Individuals desiring to be online members of the Nomenclature Section will register their intention to participate in advance of the Nomenclature Section, by a date to be determined by the Organizing Committee of the International Botanical Congress in consultation with the Bureau of Nomenclature.” “5.new1. Online members of the Nomenclature Section may accumulate and cast institutional votes just as in-person members (see Prov. 5.9(b)).” “Recommendation 1. The Nomenclature Section should take place in a country and place where broadcasting the Nomenclature Section on the web is possible and allowed.” “Recommendation 2. Local groups of non-voting observers, and members (online and in-person), of the Nomenclature Section are encouraged to meet together before and during the Section to facilitate discussion of proposals, including the results of the preliminary guiding vote (see Prov. 2.5).” “Recommendation 3. When proposals or amendments to proposals are introduced during the Nomenclature Section without having been published beforehand, voting on them should be delayed, to alert members (online and in-person) who may not be present for the whole Section.” “Recommendation 4. Written recognition for participation in the Nomenclature Section should be provided to members (online and in-person) by the Organizing Committee of the International Botanical Congress.” We thank Nicholas J. Turland (B; Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) and John H. Wiersema (US; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) for their useful comments and suggestions to improve these proposals.

(091–092) Proposals to amend Recommendation 7A on deposition of type material in institutions of countries of origin, and to add a new Recommendation 51A regarding avoiding potentially inappropriate or unacceptable names of taxa

(091–092) Proposals to amend Recommendation <scp>7A</scp> on deposition of type material in institutions of countries of origin, and to add a new Recommendation <scp>51A</scp> regarding avoiding potentially inappropriate or unacceptable names of taxa

(126) Proposal to add a new Article 61.6 to permanently and retroactively eliminate epithets with the root caf[e]r‐ or caff[e]r‐ from the nomenclature of algae, fungi and plants

(126) Proposal to add a new Article 61.6 to permanently and retroactively eliminate epithets with the root <i>caf[e]r‐</i> or <i>caff[e]r‐</i> from the nomenclature of algae, fungi and plants

EDITORIAL : A research priority for biodiversity conservation

Conservation biology emerged as a scientific discipline in the mid-1980s with the explicit practical goal of conserving species and habitats. The term ‘biodiversity’ was coined soon after, apparently at some time during the organization of the September 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity held by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution. The science of conservation biology was quickly taken up. Journals proliferated and textbooks soon followed. Laboratories within university biology and ecology departments specialized in conservation biology. Along with a great many other young biologists and ecologists, I climbed the moral high ground and set about research to help change the future by discovering how to protect biodiversity.

Leidy's Web: The Contributions of Joseph Leidy's Network of Scientists to Kansas Paleontology

By the middle of the 19th century, loosely organized systems for “networking” had developed among East Coast American scientists. These networks were both formal, such as memberships in societies or museums, and informal groups of colleagues. Such professional associations helped to establish co-operation in field work, laboratory research, and publication which had a major impact on paleontology. These associations also helped to establish outlets for publication and to acquire government funding for research. Even during the Civil War years, these professional networks served to further science and the careers of a number of young scholars ‘on their way up.’ Some of these activities were conducted under the auspices of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; others were sponsored through the Federal Government via the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution). From these scientific networks, many of which were under the aegis of Joseph Leidy, came a large number of important contributions to Kansas paleontology. Several of these occurred shortly after the close of the Civil War and involved military doctors that were posted to newly established forts in western Kansas. Important discoveries including rich deposits of fossil leaves, type specimens of the marine reptiles including Elasmosaurus platyurus, Polycotylus latipinnis, Tylosaurus proriger, and the first known bird with teeth, Ichthyornis dispar, were made by individuals in Kansas with connections to professionals in the, by then, well-established network of Joseph Leidy.