N E W S L E T T E R

NO BONES

contents: page:

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2

3

4

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12

cover story

outreach

publications

travel & presentations

visitors

seminars

the ostracod view

library

gallery

in the field

new faces

meetings

why study taxonomy?

WINTER 2007

is published qis published qis publish uarterly by theed quarterly by theed qDepartment of Invertebrate ZoologyNational Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian Institution

1

VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

From the Chair:

A New Sombrero

The recent events that culminated with the resignation of Larry Small as Smithsonian Secretary, and the appointment of our Museum director, Cristián Samper, as acting Secretary, have dominated the news internally as well as exter-nally. Thus, I make no bones about deviating from the usual invertebrate topics.

One of the first activities by the Secretary was a town hall meeting in Baird Auditorium on March 29 to discuss the recent events and future plans. In a packed auditorium, the entire Museum community awaited with excitement the entrance of the acting Secretary. When Samper appeared (accompanied by Mrs. Samper and young daughter Carolina), the place exploded in applause with a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. In my 18 years working in the Museum I have never experienced such an overwhelming show of support for an adminis-trative leader. One could argue that the sentiment was primarily of relief from witnessing the end of the nightmare that was for many dubbed ‘the Small era’. However, I do believe that the appointment of Samper has injected con-fidence, and has reassured Museum staff that a scien-tist leader is in place who will once again serve as true champion of scholarship, science, and biological collections at the Institution, much like he did when he was named our director four years ago.

It has not escaped my attention that we now have for the first time a Secre-tary who is a citizen of both the United States and Colombia, technically making him the first Latino Secretary in the history of the Smithsonian. A difficult year lies ahead while the governance of the Regents is reviewed and other Institution issues are sorted out before a new, permanent Secretary is appointed. Samper has said that he will remain with the title of NMNH director while he is acting Sec-retary, although he may throw his hat in the ring to be considered as future Sec-retary depending on what qualifications the Regents will require. If so, I do not know which hat Samper will throw, but given his roots he may use a famous “som-brero vueltiao” (see photo). This hat is typical of the rugged, hot northern Carib-bean region of Colombia and the Magdalena River basin. It is made of palm leaves (Gynerium sagittatum, known locally as “Caña Flecha”), and is arguably one of the most famous symbols of that country. Either way, i.e., whether Samper ends up as the future Secretary or if he returns to continue to lead our beloved Museum, we will end up as winners. On behalf of IZ, I wish him good luck and a steady hand.

Sombrero vueltiao with U.S. flag Photo: R. Lemaitre

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Rafael LemaitreChair, IZ

Elizabeth Nelson editornelsone@si.edu

Rose Gulledgeassistant editor

gulledgr@si.edu

Ron Lindsey libraryLindseyR@si.edu

Please submit news or articles via email or disk by June 7th.

Publication in this newsletter does not constitute publication in a taxo-nomic or any other scientific context.

N O B O N E S2

Future Female Scientist ProgramLinda Cole

The first ever Smithsonian Future Female Scientists program took place on Thursday and Friday, March 8–9 in the Natural History Build-ing. The Education Department held workshops for female high school students who aspire to become scientists. Headed by Mollie Oremland and Amy Bolton, the program, funded primarily through a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, hosted 23 female high school students from public and private schools located in the Washington D.C. metro-politan area..

Cindy Ahearn, Linda Cole, Ashleigh Smythe, Ellen Strong and Martha Nizinski represented the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and NOAA as “scientist sponsors” for the young future scientists. On March 8, Linda, Ashleigh, Ellen, and Martha gave the students behind-the-scenes tours of the collections and took them into the individual labs for demonstrations of their research. Cindy set up two hands-on sessions for students to work with the specimens. On March 9, Linda participated in a panel entitled “Pathways and Careers” in which the students learned of the various paths female SI scientists have taken to get where they are.

Linda Cole responds to a question.. Photo: C. Clark

O U T R E A C H

In addition to invertebrates chosen for the “Smithsonian’s 10 Weirdest Ob-jects” program mentioned in the last NoBones, Smithsonian on Demand (SOD)

recently chose another topic, ‘Trea-sures from the Vaults.’ On Janu-ary 13, for their new program, SOD filmed Dave Pawson and actor Tom Cavanaugh discussing the collec-tions of marine invertebrates donat-ed to the Museum by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts after their six-week collecting trip in the Gulf of Califor-nia (Sea of Cortez) in the spring of 1940. Steinbeck and Ricketts pub-lished Sea of Cortez in 1941.

‘Smithsonian on Demand’ to Produce Another Program Featuring Invertebrates

Dave Pawson and Tom Cavanaugh amidst the in-vertebrates. Photo: D. Vance

At right: A first-class ostracod stamp pictur-ing a genus and species of ostracod named for Lou Kornicker. Former Ph.D. student and research assistant Anne Cohen designed the stamp. The genus and species first appeared in Cohen and Morin 1993.

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

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P U B L I C A T I O N S

Cairns, S.D. 2007. Studies on western Atlantic Octocorallia (Gorgonacea: Ellisellidae). Part 7. The genera Riisea Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860 and Nicella Gray, 1870. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 120: 1–38.

Cairns, S.D., F.M. Bayer & D.G. Fautin 2007. Galatheanthemum profundale(Anthozoa: Actininiaria) in the western Atlantic. Bulletin of Marine Science 80: 191–200.

Carlina, D.B., L.K. Kunkle & M. Vecchione 2006. A molecular systematic evaluation of the squid genus Illex (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) in the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41: 496–502.

Hershler, R., H.–P. Liu & B.K. Lang 2007. Genetic and morphologic variation of the Pecos assiminea, an endangered mollusk of the Rio Grande region, United States and Mexico (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea: Assimineidae). Hydrobiologia 579(1): 317–335.

Hershler, R., H.–P. Liu, T.J. Frest & E.J. Johannes 2007. Extensive diversification of pebblesnails (Lithoglyphidae: Fluminicola) in the upper Sacramento River basin. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207(3): 371–422.

Liu, H.–P. & R. Hershler 2007. A text of the vicariance hypothesis of western North American freshwater biogeography. Journal of Biogeography 34(3): 534–548.

McLaughlin, P.A., R. Lemaitre & M. Ortiz 2007. Redescription of Pylocheles(Bathycheles) cubensis Ortiz & Gómez, 1986, the senior synonym of Pylocheles (B.) chacei Forest, 1987 (Decapoda, Anomura, Paguroidea, Pylochelidae). Zootaxa 1406: 41–46.

Lutz, R.A., A.G. Collins, E.R. Annis, A.J. Reed, K.F. Bennett, K.M. Halanych & R.C. Vrijenhoek 2006. Stauromedusan populations inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the southern East Pacific Rise. Cahiers de Biologie Marine 47: 409–414.

Pawson, D. 2007. Narcissia ahearnae, a new species of sea star from the Western Atlantic (Echinodermata: Asteroidea: Valvatida). Zootaxa 1386: 53–58.

Smythe, A.B. & S.A. Nadler 2006. Molecular phylogeny of Acrobeloidesand Cephalobus (Nematoda, Cephalobina) reveals paraphyletic taxa and recurrent evolution of simple labial morphology. Nematology 8: 819–836.

Smythe, A.B., M. J. Sanderson & S.A. Nadler 2006. Nematode small subunit phylogeny correlates with alignment parameters. Systematic Biology 55: 972–992.

Walter, T.C., S. Ohtsuka & L.V. Castillo 2006. A new species of Pseudodiaptomus (Crustacea: Copepoda: Calanoida) from the Philippines, with a key to pseudodiaptomids from the Philippines and comments on the status of the genus Schmackeria. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 119(2): 202–221.

Young, R.E., M. Vecchione, U. Piatkowski & C.F.E. Roper 2006. A redescription of Planctoteuthis levimana (Lonnberg, 1896) (Mollusca: Cephalopoda), with a brief review of the genus. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 119(4): 586–591.

Tonia Schneider shows one of many illustrations scanned while Molly Ryan looks on. Photo: M. Sangrey Photo: M. Sangrey

Chris Mah with horshoe crab specimen. Photo: M. Sangrey

Two IZ staff members partici-pated in the Alternative Spring Break Program coordinated by Mary San-grey, Head of the Office of Academic Services. Chris Mah (above)provided a tour of the IZ collections on March 21, while Molly Ryan (below) hosted two interns (one week each): Tara Lynn, University of Maryland, College Park and Tonia Schneider, University of Michigan. Additional details and photos are available at:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/rtp/highlights/events_archive_asb_07.html.

O U T R E A C H

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

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Allen Collins attended the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Phoenix, Arizona from Janu-ary 4–6. He participated in a symposium on "Key Transitions in Animal Evolution" and delivered an invited talk entitled "Rocks and Clocks: Integrating Fossils and Molecules to Date Transitions in Early Animal Evolution" with Paulyn Cartwright of the University of Kansas.

Kristian Fauchald and SI pre-doctoral fellow Nataliya Budaeva attended the Abyssal Polychaete Inter-calibration Project Work-shop at The Natural History Museum, London from January 8–11. Kristian presented a talk, "The DELTA system for polychaete tax-onomy"

Rafael Lemaitre was quoted in an on-line Bloomberg.com news story about lobsters, Maine Tracks Down Lobster Impostors in Drive to Defend Brand by Tom Moroney (February 9). Distinguishing between lobster imposters and the real thing, Lemaitre explained that “Both lobsters and langostinos are classified as decapoda, or ten-legged crustaceans. The lobster is bigger, averaging nine inches long. It has more claws and more meat than the langostino.” (See additional details on page 12.)

From January 3–8 Jon Norenburg participated in the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Phoenix, Arizona, where he presented the paper “Phylogeny and co-evolution in Carcinonemertidae (Nemertea), ecto-symbiotic egg-predators on decapod crustaceans.” (The paper was co-authored by Jon’s postdoctoral fellow Cynthia Santos, and collaborators Pam Roe, Patricia Sadeghian and Shichun Sun). Jon was also quoted in the on-line Washington Times article “Research bags ‘biodiversity bounty’.” by Jennifer Harper (March 9). The story described the results of a research cruise to the tropical waters off Panama aboard a 95-foot re-search vessel with an international team of investigators. "Overwhelming diversity," said Jon of his discoveries on the 11-day expedition near Coiba Island. More than 50 percent of the ribbon worms he collected have never been seen before.

On February 8, Dave Pawson presented a Smithsonian Marine Station Evening Lecture at Fort Pierce, Florida: “Tales of the deep sea: old mysteries and new discoveries.” On March 17, Dave and Mike Vecchione joined renowned scientist and genome pioneer Dr. J. Craig Venter and filmmaker David Conover for a discussion of Cracking the Ocean Code, a 50-minute film screened in Baird Auditorium that date. Venter is determined to map the DNA of every microscopic organism in the ocean.

The SITES Giant Squid exhibit opened at the Delaware Museum of Natural History on the weekend of January 19–21. Clyde Roper presented a program for the Members Preview that discussed the story of the giant squid from its historical status as a mysterious monster to its present-day recognition as an abundant, active member of the deep sea ecosystem. Opening day featured a public lecture by Clyde, "Who's Chasing Whom? The Search for the World's Largest Calamari, the Giant Squid," followed by Q & A tours through the exhibit. Then it was off to Europe, where Clyde spent two weeks (January 26–February 10) at the Italian Institute of Aquatic and Marine Research in Casilotti, outside of Rome, working with coauthor and coeditor, Dr P. Jereb, on Volume II of the three-volume work, "Cepha-lopods of the World," sponsored by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

From February 20–March 5 Clyde served as the Naturalist for a National Geograph-ic Expeditions study tour in the Andaman Sea where the small sailing ship Star Flyervisited several isolated, rarely-visited islands and coral reefs in Thailand and Malaysia.Clyde led beach walks, snorkeling forays, and deck watches. He also gave presentations on the abundance and diversity of marine life in this magnificent segment of the tropical coral seas. He continued on to Melbourne and eastern Victoria, Australia where he vis-ited colleagues from March 6–20 to discuss the status and progress on Volume III of the "Cephalopods of the World," as well as other cephalopodan projects.

Klaus Ruetzler announced that Dr. Ivan Goodbody, Emeritus Professor of Zoology and former Director of the Centre of Marine Sciences, University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, has donated his comprehensive, well-preserved, and richly documented collection of Caribbean ascidians to the Museum. Dr. Goodbody has collaborated with Klaus, Linda Cole, and Mike Carpenter since he started fieldwork at the Museum’s Car-rie Bow Marine Field Station in the 1970s.

Ellen Strong and Marilyn Schotte took part in a Census of Marine Life biodiversity survey focused mainly on mollusks and their associations in Vanuatu during September -October 2006. See article “Santo 2006” on pages 8-9 this issue.)

A wooden “tam-tam”, a carved figure commonly found in Vanuatu. Photo: M. Schotte

R E S E A R C H / T R A V E L / P R E S E N T A T I O N S

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

N O B O N E S 5

V I S I T O R S

Nancy K. Knowlton, Director, Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, John Dove Isaacs Chair in Natural Philosophy, Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, January 17, “Coral Reefs: Biodiversity and Conservation.”

Robert Carney, Louisiana State University, January 26, “Reexamination of benthic diversity and zonation on the continental margins.”

Eric Finnen, (NOAA), March 28, “NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment Biogeography Team’s Sampling Tool.”

Anne Helene S. Tandberg, Tromsø Museum, University of Tromsø (Norway), March 26, “A teenage family in a crowded house (Extended parental care in Metopa glacialis (Amphipoda) associated with Musculus discors (Bivalvia)”

Sónia Andrade, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil; Postdoctoral Smithsonian Fellow working on the phylogenetic analysis of marine interstitial nemerteans (Ototyphlonemertes sp.) (01/15/2007). Sponsor: Jon Norenberg

Philip Bouchet, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France; collaborated with Strong on marine mollusks manuscript (02/20–02/23/2007). Sponsor: Ellen Strong

Chris Cameron, Université de Montreal, Montreal (QC), Canada; used the TH Bullock enteropneust collection (02/26–03/02/2007). Sponsor: Cheryl Bright

Keith Crandall, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop (01/11–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Sammy De Grave, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, England; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop, and worded in the crustacean Caridean collections. (01/11–01/14/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Anderson Eduardo Silva de Oliveira, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil; studied Brazilian mollusks, crayfish and corals (02/26–03/09/2007). Sponsor: Cheryl Bright, Steve Cairns, Rafael Lemaitre, Ellen Strong

Richard Edwards, St. Augustine, Florida; classified seashells in the mollusks collections, including miters (03/08/2007). Sponsor: Jerry Harasewych

Beth Anne Elton, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey; examined leech collections of Haemopis spp. (01/12/2007). Sponsor: Bill Moser

Darryl Felder, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop (01/10–01/13/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Rodney Feldmann, Kent State University, Ohio; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop, and worked in the Crustacea collections (01/08–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Drew Ferrier, Hood College, Frederick, Maryland; attended with students a behind-the-scenes tour of the Invertebrate Zoology Department (03/28/2007). Sponsor: Cynthia Ahearn

Nadine Folino-Rorem, Wheaton College, Illinois; examined hydroids of the genus Cordylophora (03/21–03/23/2007). Sponsor: Allen Collins

Daniel Geiger, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, California; conducted collection research (01/25–01/26/2007). Sponsor: Jerry Harsewych

Myles Gordon, American Museum of Natural History, New York; discussed educational outreach possibilities with Ahearn (02/14/2007). Sponsor: Cynthia Ahearn

Peter Hovingh, Utah Museum of Natural History, Salt Lake City, Utah; examined western and Canadian leech collections (01/11–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Bill Moser

T H E O S T R A C O D V I E W

S E M I N A R S

Continued on page 6.

Of course I realize that our sharing 98% DNA is a blow to our self esteem, but we must keep a stiff lower lip!

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

N O B O N E S6

V I S I T O R S continued

Jens Erik Thejil Jelnes, University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Denmark; studied Bulimus and Biomphalania sp. (01/08 –01/11/2007). Sponsor: Robert Hershler

Elena Krylova, Russian Academy of Sciences, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanography, Moscow, Russia; examined mollusk family Vesicomyidae (01/24–01/26/2007). Sponsor: Jerry Harasewych

Eric Lazo-Wasem, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, Connecticut; retrieved Atlantic seamount echinoderm collections identified by Ahearn and Mah (03/15/2007). Sponsor: Cynthia Ahearn

Jody Martin, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop (01/11–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Rich Mooi, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California; examined USNM holdings of echinoids (Echinodermata), and conferred with Mah (03/07/2007). Sponsor: Chris Mah

Rachel Muir, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia; examined freshwater and marine clam collection (02/09/2007). Sponsor: Robert Hershler

Mollie Sue Oremland, Education Office, NMNH; hosted Future Female Scientists Program 2007; Ahearn conducted presentation and workshop for 16 participating students and sponsors (03/08/2007). Sponsor: Cynthia Ahearn

TaeSeo Park, Seoul National University, South Korea; examined collections of nereidid polychaetes (01/30–02/04/2007). Sponsor: Kristian Fauchald

Gary Poore, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; studied isopods in the USNM collections (01/25–02/01/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Andre Poremski, Arlington, Virginia; worked with mollusk type specimens in the family Conidae (01/23/2007). Sponsor: Jerry Harasewych

Megan Porter, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop (01/11–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Janet Reid, Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, Virginia; used the Wilson Copepod Library to conduct current research (01/29–02/06/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Steve Ross, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, North Carolina; examined antipatharian samples from Gulf of Mexico, consulted with Cairns, and discussed current collaborative projects with Nizinski (03/01/2007). Sponsors: Steve Cairns, Martha Nizinski

Katsushi Sakai, Shikoku University, Tokushima, Japan; worked in Crustacea type collection and holdings (Axiidae). (03/21–03/28/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Guenter Schuster, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky; examined crayfish of Alabama (01/08–01/14/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Carrie Schweitzer, Kent State University, Ohio; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop, and worked in Crustacea collections. (01/08–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Robin Hadlock Seeley, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; studied Robin Hadlock Seeley, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; studied Robin Hadlock Seeley Littorina obtusa (New England) holdings in mollusk collection (03/06–03/07/2007). Sponsor: Robert Hershler

Robert Stephenson, St. Andrews Biological Station, New Brunswick, Canada; toured IZ collections, discussed biodiversity, conservation, and ecosystem management issues (2/27/07). Sponsor: Martha Nizinski

Anne Helene S. Tandberg, Tromsø University, Norway; worked on the phylogeny of amphipod genus Metopa(Stenothoidae) (03/13–03/27/2007). Sponsor: Bill Moser

Carolina Rodrigues Tavares, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; working with crustacea collections of Solenoceridae (02/14–10/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Chris Taylor, Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois; studied crayfish from Alabama (01/08–01/14/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Martin Thiel, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile; working on amphipods, isopods and nemerteans in IZ collections (03/27–04/06/2007). Sponsor: Marilyn Schotte, Jon Norenburg

Alicia Toon, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; attended second A Tree of Life (AToL) workshop (01/11–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre Continued on page 7.

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N E W T I T L E S : I Z L I B R A R I E S G A L L E R Y

January - March 2007

Alonso, Gloria Maria. 1984. Anfipodos gammarideos litorales del Mar Austral Argentino: (Crustacea Amphipoda Gammaridea). s.l.: s.n. Thesis (Ph. D.) Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Bertrand Richer de Forges, (coordonné). 1991. Le benthos des fonds meubles des lagons de Nouvelle-Calédonie, vols. 1-2. Paris: Editions de l'ORSTOM, 1991.

Coleman, Charles Oliver. 1991. Funktionsmorphologie, Anatomie und Systematik ausgewählter Antarktischer Amphipoda (Crustacea). s.l.: s.n. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Oldenburg.

Klein, Jaap. 2006. Lower Cretaceous ammonites. II, Perisphinctaceae. 2, Polyptychitidae. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers.

Müller, Werner E. G. (ed.). 2003. Sponges (Porifera). (Progress in molecular and Subcellular Biology; v.37) Berlin; New York: Springer.

Schrödl, Michael. 2003. Sea slugs of southern South America: systematics, biogeography, and biology of Chilean and Magellanic Nudipleura (Mollusca:Opisthobranchia). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks.

Stepanova, A. Yu. 2006. Late Pleistocene-Holocene and recent Ostracoda of the Laptev Sea and their importance for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Moscow: Maik "Hayka/Interperiodica."

Števcic, Zdravko. 2005. The reclassification of Brachyuran crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura). Zagreb, Croatia: Hrvatski Prirodoslovni Muzej.

Stewart, Amy. 2004. The earth moved: on the remarkable achievements of earthworms. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Thatcher, Vernon Everett. 2006. Amazon fish parasites. Sofia: PENSOFT.

9 April 1856 – 14 January 1944Louis-Eugène Bouvier

Exceptional French naturalist and comparative morphologist. He stud-ied pharmacy, botany, and obtained his doctoral degree in 1887 with a the-sis on gastropods at École Pratique des Hautes Études. Named Professor of Zo-ology (1894) at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, where he was Chair of the entomology lab from 1896 until his retirement in 1931. At the in-vitation of Prince Albert of Monaco he participated in famous deep-sea expedi-tions to the eastern Atlantic on board the “Hirondelle” and “Princesse Alice”. Prodi-giously productive, he published more than 500 papers (many on invertebrates, including madreporarians, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, and arachnids), vertebrates, and zoological philosophy. Among his numerous seminal works on crustaceans, best known are his studies on the evolution of lithodid crabs (1894, 1895, 1897), comparative anatomy of macrurans, brachyurans, and anomurans (1891), monographs of abyssal decapod crustaceans (1890 to 1892, some with his admired teacher A. Milne- Edwards), atyid shrimps (1924), and his “Décapodes Marcheurs” (1940). Dressing in black, he was a modest man known for his untir-ing working habits. He died a poor man proud of his accomplishments.

Dale Tshudy, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; worked with crustacean Dale Tshudy, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; worked with crustacean Dale Tshudycollections of nephropids (01/08–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

Alexander Tzetlin, Moscow State University, Russia; conducted anatomical study of opheliid and scalibregmatid polychaetes (01/13–03/31/2007). Sponsor: Kristian Fauchald

Janice Voltzow, University of Scranton, Pennsylvania; examined specimens of Janice Voltzow, University of Scranton, Pennsylvania; examined specimens of Janice Voltzowpleurotomariids in the mollusk collection (03/14–03/15/2007). Sponsor: Jerry Harasewych

David Waugh, Kent State University, Ohio; attended second A Tree of Life(AToL) workshop, and worked in the crustacea collections (01/08–01/12/2007). Sponsor: Rafael Lemaitre

V I S I T O R S continued

Accompanied by Dr. Drew Ferrier, Professor and Director of Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, students from Hood College in Frederick, Mary-land toured IZ on March 28. Providing information about their collections were Kristian Fauchald Kristian Fauchald (Worms), Tyjuana Nickens and Paul Greenhall (Mollusks),Tim Coffer (Coelenterates), Karen Reed (Crustacea), and tour leader Cindy Ahearn, who ended the students’ day with a visit to the Echinoderm collection.

Hood College Students Tour DepartmentHood College Students Tour Department

WINTER 2007 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1

N O B O N E S8

The island nation of Vanuatu lies west of Fiji in the Melanesian province of the Pacific Ocean. The journey for Ellen Strong and myself from Washington, D.C. required four plane flights and 38 hours en route via Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. Upon landing in the island’s capital of Pt. Vila, we were greeted by a Ni-Vanuatu (native) blowing his conch horn and by a string band playing welcoming songs in Bislama, a form of pidgin English common throughout the region. A short flight from there took us to the base of operations in the town of Luganville on the largest island, Espiritu Santo, where we spent nearly six weeks from early September to late October, 2006, participating in an extensive biodiversity study, SANTO 2006 [http://www.ird.fr/recherche/santo2006/].

Over a five-month period in 2006, 165 scientists, technicians, educators and sup-port people from all over the world converged on this tiny town to take part in the in the multi-year SANTO 2006 project. The web-site describes this survey as “the most ambi-tious scientific mission ever undertaken for biodiversity.” This archipelago was chosen for study because of its remote and relatively undisturbed location with high biodiversity on land and in the sea. The survey was set up to sample various habitats from the tree-tops, to the coastal areas, to the bottom of the sea. Dr. Philippe Bouchet, professor and scientist at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris heads the larger project which spans several years; co-sponsors include the MNHN, the Institut de Recherche pour le développement, Pro-Natura International, and the Census of Marine Life which granted this expediton the status of a “Census of Reefs Expedition.” A similar survey of the Panglao Island in the southern Philippines took place two years ago. In 2008 the project will continue in the deep-sea habitats of the northern Philippines and will include IZ scientists Steve Cairns, Allen Collins and Ellen Strong. This is our chance to make exten-sive additions to the invertebrate fauna of the western Pacific in our collections. The Panglao expedition alone revealed an estimated 150-250 new species of crustaceans and 1,500-2,000 new mollusks, facts which made headline news on CNN on February 5th of this year.

This part of the study focused mainly on mollusks and their associations (primarily crustaceans, echinoderms and cor-als). A mosaic of habitats was sampled ranging from estuarine mangroves, coral reefs, and offshore to the deep-sea. Ellen Strong’s role in the expedition was head of the mollusk specimen preservation team whose goal was to prepare thousands of mollusks for DNA sequencing and anatomical investigation.

Our lab was housed in a large building on the campus of Vanuatu Maritime College which supplied us boats, support staff and meals for the 55 plus participants. The food was quite good: everyday we ate organic beef (sometimes chicken) with rice, salad, starchy vegetables like taro, breadfruit, or yams, with lots of papayas, bananas, oranges and pink grapefruit. We even enjoyed ice cream on this tropical island. Housing in local motels was a short walk or shuttle ride away. Workdays began about 7:00 AM for most people as teams of scientists, professional divers and boatman loaded up seven vessels for each day’s collecting. Back in the lab there was a beehive of activity while specimens were sorted, photographed, documented on laptops and preserved. Most people worked late into the evening, often until midnight. Around us we heard conversations in French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, and Tagalog from the Philippines and Bislama. English was the lingua franca because everyone could understand it, and several people were conversing in three languages.

Santo 2006: studying biodiversity on Vanuatu in the South Pacific

I N T H E F I E L D

Continued on page 9.

Marilyn Schotte

Boat pier behind Vanuatu Maritime College Photo: M. Schottetops, to the coastal areas, to the bottom of Boat pier behind Vanuatu Maritime College Photo: M. Schottetops, to the coastal areas, to the bottom of

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Among the participants were many carcinologists familiar to IZ: Paul Clark and Geoff Boxshall from the UK, Peter Ng and his students from Singapore, and Tim-Yan Chan from Taiwan.

A large number of people were engaged in another important component of the expedition: outreach and public education. Media experts gathered images and text to be transformed into a TV documentary and a pedagogical website (in French) for French schoolchildren who could access the daily log and view spectacular images of the collected specimens as the site was updated. Local students were also involved in the collection and sorting of specimens, and local newspapers carried several

feature articles on the expedition to educate the native populace. During an open-house, teachers, ministers and tribal chiefs were invited to see the operation. Some of them looked through a microscope for the very first time.

In the end we collected nearly 1,100 different species of shrimps and crabs, 380 nudibranchs, and more than 200 species of sea cu-cumbers, brittlestars, echinoids and sea stars, including a specimen of the heaviest sea star in the world, Thromidia catalai. Dr. Bouchet estimates that the final count will include about 5,000 species of mollusks, but this won’t be known for certain for several years un-til the catch is processed and sorted in Paris. This year the tis-sue processing team returned with over 3,000 mollusk tissue samples, and a du-plicate set of nearly 5,000 lots preserved in alcohol suitable for molecular sequenc-ing and anatomical work.

The close of the expedition at the end of October coin-

cided with an annual event of great importance to the local people: the ritu-als surrounding the catching and eating of the famous Palolo worm, known to

most biologists only through descrip-tions in textbooks. During neap tides in the last quarter moon of October, millions of these polychaete worms simultaneously release an epitoke, or string of gametes into the sea. No one knows how this is coordinated, but thousands of is-landers from Fiji, Solomons, Tonga and Vanuatu, who have known about this for centuries, rush out to the water, wading or in canoes, to gather masses of sticky gametes. These are then cooked, baked or eaten raw, even finding their way onto local restaurant menus. Many of our scientists joined the locals in this feast. And the taste? Salty, fishy, tart, maybe a little like caviar, but all the brave ones agreed that sharing the experience was definitely an act of goodwill. It was one of only

thousands of images we carried back in memory.

I N T H E F I E L D continued

Primovula beckeri (Sowerby III, 1900) Photo: S. Schiaparelli

Dr. Ellen Strong is interviewed in the lab by a French TV crew.

Photo: M. Schotte

Dr. Bert Hoeksema, Naturalis, Leiden, Netherlands, collected a giant sea star, Thromidia catalai, known from Polynesia and Melanesia. Photo: M. Schotte

Nudibranch Chromodoris elizabethina Photo: Y. Camacho-Garcia

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Dr. Viatcheslav N. (Slava) Ivanenko, scientist, Department of Invertebrate Zoology of Moscow State University (15 September 2006–7 March 2007)

Dr. Ivanenko, hosted by Frank Ferrari and Chad Walter, was contracted to work with about 6000 slides of species of symbiotic and deep-sea hydrothermal vent copepods donated to the NMNH by the late Dr. Arthur Grover Humes. He examined and sorted each slide, and identified nearly 1800 paratype slides of about 520 species described by Humes. Slava prepared and/or restored each slide for long-term curation, a procedure he developed, and entered the data into EMu, the electronic cataloging system of the NMNH. He also edited a master list of Humes’ publications. He then created several collections data files: a pdf file of Humes’ field notes; a species register of his collections; a listing of museums that hold his type material; and pdf files of taxonomic cards of every species of copepod.

Before leaving, Slava discussed a future contract to link EMu records of para-sitic copepods to their respective hosts.

Slava is currently working with Frank Ferrari on segmental homologies of maxilla 2 of copepods, and on the correspondence of segments between crustacean and insect thoracic limbs with focus on the copepod maxilliped and the machilid walking leg.Hard-working scientist takes in the sights.

Carolina Tavares, Ph. D. student, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (February–September, 2007)

I arrived in Washington, D.C. on a snowy Valentine’s Day to start work on my Ph. D. at the NMNH. My re-search thesis is on the phylogeny of the shrimp family So-lenoceridae, of which the NMNH has a vast collection with more than 80% of the total known species.

To compliment my research I am also using the facili-ties of the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Lab to closely examine various mouth parts and sexual features of this group of shrimp. SEM lab manager Scott Whit-taker is training me to use the microscope to take the best pictures of my specimens. These skills will prove invalu-able for my research now and in the future.

My sponsor, Dr. Rafael Lemaitre, gave me important suggestions for my project before I arrived, and he continues to help me with my work, and I am really thankful to him.

I am very impressed with the large and extensive holdings of the Crustacea collection. Here I have the opportunity to examine specimens from all around the world, including collections from old expeditions as well as rare material. I will keep very busy during my visit.

And although I arrived during freezing temperatures, I am often warmed during lunch with the kind IZ staff members with their funny conversations.

Photo: K. Reed

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Huyen Nguyen, an undergraduate student at American Univer-sity, Washington, D.C., has been hired as a contractor from July 2006–September 2007 to complete the Crustacea Picture File Scanning Proj-ect.

This large and unique collection of photographs and negatives, as well as line drawings (some original) and text plates was amassed by pre-vious USNM curators to assist with their research in carcinology. It in-cludes important references for species identification in roughly 14,000 plates meticulously compiled and stored in metal filing cabinets.

Digitizing the collection and saving the digital files in archival format will make this important and irreplaceable collec-tion accessible to other researchers in the Museum, as well as in other institutions.

Photo: K. Reed

On January 25th and 26th IZ hosted a steering committee meeting of the “Continental Margin Ecosystems” (CO-MARGE) group, which is an international component of the “Census of Marine Life” (CoML). Representatives of 12 coun-tries took part: Dr. Gary Poore (Australia), Dr. Ann Vanreusel (Belgium), Dr. Helena P Lavrado (Brazil), Dr. Javier Sellanes (Chile), Drs. Myriam Sibuet, Joel Galeron, and Lenaick Menot (France), Pedro Martinez (Spain/Germany), Stefanie Keller (Germany), Dr. Baban Ingole (India), Dr. Hiroshi Kitazato (Japan), Dr. Elena Krylova (Russia), Dr. David Billett, not pictured (UK), and Drs. Robert S. Carney and Gil Rowe (USA). Carney presented a talk on benthic diversity and zonation on the continental margins. (See “Seminars” on p. 5).

Committee members admire display of invertebrates. Left to right, front row: H. Kitazato, J. Sellanes, E. Krylova, P. Martinez, M. Sibuet, B. Ingol, S. Keller, H. Lavrado, R. Lemaitre; back row: L. Menot, J. Galleron, R.Carney, A. Vanreusel, G. Poore, and G. Rowe Photo: M. Sangrey

M E E T I N G S

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On January 12–13 IZ hosted a workshop of the Decapod AToL (Assembling the Tree of Life) group (the second event in as many years). Partic-ipants are working on an ambitious project funded my NSF entitled, “Collaborative Research: AToL: Morphological and Molecular Phylogeny of the Decapod Crustaceans.” The topic is of great sig-nificance in understanding the evolution of De-capoda, a complex group that is at the pinnacle of crustacean evolutionary development and diver-sification. It is the first comprehensive attempt to assemble a decapod tree using both morphologi-cal, molecular and fossil evidence. The event was arranged through Rafael Lemaitre and his invalu-able helpers, Rose Gulledge and Karen Reed.

Taxonomy and Taste – or “Lobster” Around the World

M E E T I N G S continued

Left to right: Jody Martin, Rodney Feldman, Carrie Schweitzer,, Darryl Felder, David Waugh, Sammy De Graves, Rafael Lemaitre and Chris Tudge. Photo: M. Sangrey

W H Y S T U D Y T A X O N O M Y ?

Rafael Lemaitre provided extensive taxonomic information to Colin Woodard, whose article “Branding lobsters: Decapod duels: Maine takes on the imposters,” appeared in the November 30, 2006 The Economist. “Imposter” lobsters appear on restaurant menus and are sold in supermarkets described as “langostino lobster.” Dealers also use the term “squat lobster” to refer to the imposters. Woodard reported that “...Red Lobster and other such restaurant chains have started offering “langostino lobster” dishes. Gastronomes sym-pathise.” [http://economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8366416] Rafael was contacted again about lobster questions and was quoted in the February 9 on-line Bloomberg.com news story “Maine Tracks Down Lobster Impostors in Drive to Defend Brand” by Tom Moroney. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a_bEVpX9Hm74&refer=us

Woodard’s request for information stated that “There's a dispute about whether the following species can be marketed as lobster on menus and such, with opponents (mostly here in Maine) arguing that these are either "prawns" or "pelagic crabs." The species are: Cervi-munida johni, Pleuroncodes monodon and Munida gregaria.” Because of the focus of the article, much other interesting information provid-ed by Rafael was not used. Some of his additional comments are provided in the following paragraphs for the lobster lovers among us.

“There is great inconsistency in the use of common names, depending on countries, regions of the world, or languages. This is why scientists invented scientific, Latinized names and binomial nomenclature. It is the only way to know what species one is talking about, or eating in restaurants.

In Chile, for example, the three species mentioned above are commonly known by the Spanish names “langostino amarillo,” “lan-gostino colorado,” and “langostino enano,” respectively. The word for “lobster” in Spanish is “langosta,” thus the term “langostino” in reference to the resemblance seen by any lay observer and used as a diminutive. Perhaps the importers took liberties with the translation and turned that into “lobster.” For any knowledgeable biologist, none of those three species mentioned above is technically a lobster, al-though the English common name for the group they belong to (Family Galatheidae) is collectively called “squat lobsters.”

Lobsters fall under the general category of shrimp in Japan (“ebi”), whereas clawed lobsters (homarid) and spiny lobsters (“lan-gouste”), have entirely different names in France. There is also the use of “crayfish” or “crawfish,” both of which refer to lobsters as well, but often are used for either the freshwater species eaten in Louisiana and surrounding states, or the saltwater ones eaten in the Carib-bean or other tropical marine regions.

Zoologically and technically speaking, the term “lobster” applies to several groups of decapod crustaceans, i.e. the Astacidea (clawed lobsters, e.g. Homarus americanus or “American lobster”) and Palinura (non-clawed lobsters such as the spiny lobster Panulirus argus or “Caribbean spiny lobster,” and the like). Sometimes this is stretched a bit to include other groups as well… but not very frequently.

In summary, the problem cannot be resolved unless scientific names of species are mentioned on seafood labels and restaurant menus. As far as I am concerned, there ought to be a taxonomist in every major seafood restaurant, and major importing port of entry!”