Marine
by Emilio Garcia
This section of the Conch-Net's
News of New Species is designed to keep its readers abreast
of selected new species of marine mollusks published in conchological
journals. At this time we have access to only a few of those
journals but hope to expand coverage in the future. Only the
more obvious characteristics and/or differences with similar
species were extracted from the original descriptions, so we
encourage readers to go to these descriptions if they want a
more complete definition of the species.
For some species, a Comments
Section has been added by the author of this column. It is intended
to add information not found in the original description or
to place it in a slightly different context.
Most professional malacologists
agree that the publication of new species should be done in
scientific journals strictly refereed by malacologists who are
well acquainted with the family to which a new species belongs.
The proliferation of non-valid new species in recent years is
due to the fact that this rule has not been closely followed
The species described here as
new are listed only as a source of information. A number of
them may be considered only forms by some taxonomists and amateur
collectors, including the editor of this section.... not only
because there is a great degree of variability within a species
in these families but, perhaps more importantly, because a number
of the taxonomists in these popular families are amateur themselves,
and some of these amateurs are not aware of the importance or
procedures for doing the the necessary research, or do not have
access to libraries or collections that should be studied before
new species are published.
New Species Not Included:
a) Species under 5 mm, with the exception of American species
of some popular families such as Triphoridae.
b) Benthic species that can be collected only by research vessels,
except for a few major families such as Pleurotomariidae, Cypraeidae,
Muricidae and Volutidae.
