New Names Introduced by H. A. Pilsbry in the Mollusca and Crustacea, by William J
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jbyH.l in the 1 ILML 'r-i- William J. Clench Ruth D. Turner we^ f >^ ,iV i* * ACADKMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHLV'-' NAMES INTRODUCED BY PILSBRY m mLT) Oi -0 Dr^ 5: D m NEW NAMES INTRODUCED BY H. A. PILSBRY IN THE MOLLUSCA AND CRUSTACEA by William J. C^lencli and Ivutli _L). liirner Curator ana Research Associate in Aialacology, respectively, Aiiiseum ol Comparative Zoology at Harvara College ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA — Special Publication No. 4 1962 SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA No. I.—The Mineralogy of Pennsylvania, by Samuel Gordon. No. 2.—Crystallographic Tables for the Determination of Minerals, by V. GoLDSCHMiDT and Samuel Gordon, (Out of print.) No. 3.—Gabb's California Cretaceous and Tertiary Lamellibranchs, by Ralph B. Stewart. No. 4.—New Names Introduced by H. A. Pilsbry in the Mollusca and Crustacea, by William J. Clench and Ruth D. Turner. Publications Committee: H. Radclyffe Roberts, Chairman C. Willard Hart, Jr., Editor Ruth Patrick James A. G. Rehn James Bond James Bohlke Printed in the United States of America WICKERSHAM PRINTING COMPANY We are most grateful to several people who have done much to make this present work possible: to Drs. R. T. Abbott and H. B. Baker of the Academy for checking several names and for many helpful suggestions; to Miss Constance Carter of the library staff of the Museum of Comparative Zoology for her interest and aid in locating obscure publications; to Drs. J. C. Bequaert and Merrill Champion of the Museum of Comparative Zoology for editorial aid; and to Anne Harbison of the Academy of Natural Sciences for making possible the publication of Pilsbry's names. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Catalogue 5 Bibliography of Henry A. Pilsbry 165 It is a singular coincidence that 1962 is both the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Henry A. Pilsbry. INTRODUCTION he following catalogue covers all of the new names created by Henry Au- gustus Pilsbry and his several co-authors, for both Recent and Fossil forms in the Mollusca and Crustacea. These names range in taxa from those above the family level to subspecies, varieties and forms. This work had its inception many years ago when we found it necessary to "card out" the new names which Pilsbry had instituted so that these names might be used in our own current problems of research in the field of malacology. As time went on, this catalogue increased in size and became a source of ready information to all members of our staff. Its completion and publication we felt " would make available a large file of data not easily located elsewhere. Although the "Zoological Record" has listed most of Pilsbry's names, searching through it is a slow process because 5,680 names were introduced by Pilsbry over a period of 75 years. Furthermore, many private and institutional Hbraries do not have a set of the Zoological Record. In carrying out such a task, one learns much about certain facets of a man's character. Pilsbry, in a measure, isolated himself. Few, if any, reviewed his manuscripts before they went to press and consequently many minor errors escaped the editor. Most of these were errors of omission rather than com- mission. For about fifty percent of his specific and sub-specific names he gave no type number for the specimen or specimens used in his descriptions. Most of these type specimens are in the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The introductory remarks in any one paper, however, usually indicate in which institution the types are located. In names above the generic level he frequently left out any indication that they were new, and it has been a diflBcult task to determine the first introduction of such names in this category. Also, authorship of many was rarely mentioned and it is certain that we have missed some of these. There is Httle doubt that Pilsbry introduced more names tlian any other student in the field of malacology. Probably only W. H. Dall even approxi- mated the number created by Pilsbry. 1 PILSBRYS NAMES Most of Pilsbry's type designations for genera were either by original designa- tion or by monotypy. In creating new names for homonyms of species he generally gave type designations for specimens in the Academy collections, com- pletely overlooking tlie fact that these were a change of names only and that the substituted names automatically took the original type specimens of the homo- nyms. Pilsbry made many casual notes on side issues while doing certain of his specific studies. These accrued over the years. When extra copy was needed to round out the necessary pages for issues of the "Nautilus," these notes were used for copy. Thus duplication of his own work, as well as the work of others, reached the printed page. A note of this sort was published in the "Nautilus" 58: 64, 1944: "Many years ago I was describing shells collected in Hawaii by my friends and myself in a series of papers pubhshed by the A.N.S.P. Manuscript descrip- tions and figures prepared for another number of that series have been lying dormant in my desk drawer about 25 years. Some of them now serve to stop a gap in Plate 2." In 1955, Dr. Myra Keen wrote to Dr. Pilsbry regarding some problems of nomenclature in the Trochidae as covered in the Manual of Conchology. In reply, he wrote as follows: "It is over sixty years since I wrote that Manual of Conchology review of the group. This was so long before they bought a high chair for you that you can hardly appreciate the fact that in 1890 there was no "oflBcial" or even customary method of selecting generitypes. Allen of the American Museum and some bird men used the method "by elimination." Also, Dall occasionally. Those were dark but carefree days. We httle knew of the brambles and pitfalls concealed in the thickets of nomenclature we have to fight our way through nowadays." Any person publishing, as a descriptive zoologist, over a period of 75 years has lived through many "schools of thought." Starting as he did in 1882, his early writings were published before the rules of nomenclature had really crys- talHzed and many of his names were the product of his time. His concept of taxa below the specific level is sometimes difficult to understand. The terms "subspecies," "variety," "form," and "mutation" are all used without clarification. Using our present understanding of the species complex, many of these names will fall by the way. Many were based upon single specimen variations in a unit population, or upon isolated specimens which didn't quite agree with the meager descriptive data of other authors. We have treated all the trinomials the same, regardless of how they were originated, i.e. as subspecies, varieties, forms, etc. Each of these trinomials must be judged anew on the basis of our present understanding of the geographical significance of the subspecies. As stated elsewhere, many of these trinomials were created for variations within a species and many times upon trivial dif- ferences. In a few cases, Pilsbry overlooked earlier introductions of subfamily or family names which he had created. In many instances their introduction was indicated only by their scientific endings with no additional information as to why such names were needed. Later, and sometimes much later, morphological data were given to clarify their use. INTRODUCTION This report on Pilsbry's names is concerned only with their initial introduc- tion. It is to be noted in many cases no figures were given. This is true for many species which he first described in the early issues of the "Nautilus." Most of these species were figured later, mainly in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, shortly after they appeared in the "Nautilus." Many species described from Japan by Pilsbry alone or by Pilsbry and Hirase jointly in the Academy Proceedings and in the "Nautilus" were later figured in the "Conchological Magazine" (Kyoto, Japan, 1907-1915). This magazine was edited and published by Y. Hirase. Pilsbry and Johnson published a report on the "New Mollusca of the Santo Domingo Oligocene" (1917, Proc. ANSP 69: 150-202). None was figured. Most of these species and subspecies were figured and published by Pilsbry (1922, Proc. ANSP 73: 305-435) in a revision of the first report. Most of Pilsbry's species of land mollusks of North America are figured in his monumental work covering this fauna (1939-1948, Land Mollusca of North America, Mono. no. 3, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1: 41 + 994, figures 580; 2: 53 + 1113, figures 585). Pilsbry described a multitude of species from the Japanese Empire. In many cases he did not differentiate between Japan proper and the many islands and island groups distant from the main Japanese inlands. Also, he used several different forms of spelling for the islands southwest of Japan, such as Loo Choo; Riu Kiu and Ryu Kyu; all, of course, refer to the same island group. Pilsbry seldom gave a bibliography or a list of references in his papers. In this regard, he considered the synonymies under the various species as a bibliog- raphy. Care must be taken not to treat many of the names cited in the synon- ymy as synonyms but rather as references, since he considered many of these as subspecies or varieties and dealt with them as such, in the same paper.