Naming Species, a New Paradigm for Crisis Management in Taxonomy: Rapid Journal Validation of Scientific Names Enhanced with More Complete Descriptions on the Internet

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Abstract
The process of taxonomic description and validation of names under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Fourth Edition) is central to providing the anchor by which present and future seekers of knowledge attach and subsequently retrieve information about species and their phylogenetic associations. Since Linnaeus (1758), 4,400 ± 363 species of insects have been described per year. If 25 to 30% of all species are beetles, and some 400,000 are estimated to be described to date, even taking the lower end of reasonable estimates at 8 to 10 million species of insects total, we still have more than 2 million beetle species yet to describe. At the current pace of some 3,154 beetle species described per year (1978 to present: BIOSIS, Zoological Record), we could “finish” the job in the year 3056 using the present system. While traditional descriptions published in widely circulated journals has been the mainstay of taxonomy and served the science well, we are entering a phase that might be called crisis management in taxonomy. This results from recent higher demands on taxonomists due to a general recognition that biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate, the so-called Sixth Extinction Crisis, and a reduced number of practicing descriptive taxonomists. Therefore, a new description paradigm that provides for rapid validation of new taxonomic names is paramount to plans for national biodiversity surveys. This new paradigm is elaborated and examples are given for both traditional and projected methods of species descriptions and rapid publication with additional extensive use of the Internet and server system to store and transmit more complete details and images. “One other characteristic of modern taxonomy seems to me to be that emphasis has shifted from descriptions to actual specimens, or from words to animals. Descriptions cannot be made full enough and accurate enough to satisfy later workers. Each generation of taxonomists must see the actual specimens used by earlier generations, and I think the tendency now is, or should be, to make descriptions short, but of course explicit and carefully calculated, and to make specimens widely available.” P. J. Darlington, Jr., 1971 full page charges borne by the author.

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