nov 2007
What to do with a living snail?
30-11-2007 20:46
Phylogenetic
relationships were always one of the major drivers
behind my scientific interest in snails. Consequently
there has been a need for animals. In the '70s I have
been hunting for snails because I wanted to study
their anatomy and histology. Nowadays scientific
frontiers have shifted and so has the methodology. I
need fresh tissue to be able to extract DNA that, in
the end, will reveal phylogenetic data.
The material that I have collected more than 30 years ago does not meet modern requirements (at least, with the facilities at my disposal). The animals were drown in water for about 24 hours to let them stretch, which procedure is detrimental for the quality of DNA. Moreover, the animals have been preserved in alcohol 70%; this is, to say the least, not optimal.
So, I'm constantly on the outlook for freshly collected animals. For which I have to rely on the kindness of other people.
Provided that you want to facilitate phylogenetic research. And suppose that you are willing to go out for hunting snails. What do you do with a living snail?
Some of you might know already. If so, please skip this section. If not, read on. I have tried to be as clear and concise as possible in this short guide, distinguishing 10 steps during three phases:
A) Preparation
1. It all starts in preparing your field trip. Take -- besides your collecting material -- your notebook, a camera and (preferably) a GPS. Nothing special for anyone who takes field work serious nowadays. And have enough stock of alcohol 96%.
B) Collecting
2. When you set out to the field, take enough wrapping paper (toilet paper will do nicely) with you.
3. Encountering a living snail, not only take notes of the locality, the GPS coordinates and the ecology (e.g. vegetation, soil type), but also take pictures of the animal. Macro (the snail in its environment) and micro (the animal from various sides).
4. Wrap the animal in enough paper, such that it will retract within its shell.
5. When you return in the evening to your (home) base, put the animal directly in alcohol 96% (so do NOT drown in water first!).
C) Preparing for shipment
6. Take cotton and soak it in alcohol 96%.
7. [Extra step if you want to save on shipping costs or are dealing with large animals, e.g. Orthalicidae or large Thaumastus, Plekocheilus, etc.] Take a sharp knife (scalpel), dip it in alcohol 96% and cut off the tail end of the foot, as large as possible.
If the animal is totally retracted within its shell, please skip this step or you might mess things up.
8. Wrap the animal in the cotton soaked during step 6, put in a plastic bag and seal it.
9. Put the bag, together with the location data and the identification label, in another plastic bag; repeat at least twice or three times.
[N.B.: If you followed step 7, ensure that the animal can be identified by either including an empty shell or a label like e.g. "Scutalus sp. (number)"].
10. Make sure the result is tightly sealed and doesn't smell and put it in a suitable box for shipment. Label with "Material for scientific study only - No commercial value" and the address you may find here. Please send me an email when you dispatch, explaining what you are sending and including all relevant data (e.g. explanation of numbers).
What will it bring you? Let me ensure you that I'll be most grateful for your kind cooperation. The least I will do is to give you a honourable mention in the 'Acknowledgements' section in one of my future papers :-) But generally I'll be happy to refund you the shipping costs, unless you waive it or I can help you in other ways.
The material that I have collected more than 30 years ago does not meet modern requirements (at least, with the facilities at my disposal). The animals were drown in water for about 24 hours to let them stretch, which procedure is detrimental for the quality of DNA. Moreover, the animals have been preserved in alcohol 70%; this is, to say the least, not optimal.
So, I'm constantly on the outlook for freshly collected animals. For which I have to rely on the kindness of other people.
Provided that you want to facilitate phylogenetic research. And suppose that you are willing to go out for hunting snails. What do you do with a living snail?
Some of you might know already. If so, please skip this section. If not, read on. I have tried to be as clear and concise as possible in this short guide, distinguishing 10 steps during three phases:
A) Preparation
1. It all starts in preparing your field trip. Take -- besides your collecting material -- your notebook, a camera and (preferably) a GPS. Nothing special for anyone who takes field work serious nowadays. And have enough stock of alcohol 96%.
B) Collecting
2. When you set out to the field, take enough wrapping paper (toilet paper will do nicely) with you.
3. Encountering a living snail, not only take notes of the locality, the GPS coordinates and the ecology (e.g. vegetation, soil type), but also take pictures of the animal. Macro (the snail in its environment) and micro (the animal from various sides).
4. Wrap the animal in enough paper, such that it will retract within its shell.
5. When you return in the evening to your (home) base, put the animal directly in alcohol 96% (so do NOT drown in water first!).
C) Preparing for shipment
6. Take cotton and soak it in alcohol 96%.
7. [Extra step if you want to save on shipping costs or are dealing with large animals, e.g. Orthalicidae or large Thaumastus, Plekocheilus, etc.] Take a sharp knife (scalpel), dip it in alcohol 96% and cut off the tail end of the foot, as large as possible.
If the animal is totally retracted within its shell, please skip this step or you might mess things up.
8. Wrap the animal in the cotton soaked during step 6, put in a plastic bag and seal it.
9. Put the bag, together with the location data and the identification label, in another plastic bag; repeat at least twice or three times.
[N.B.: If you followed step 7, ensure that the animal can be identified by either including an empty shell or a label like e.g. "Scutalus sp. (number)"].
10. Make sure the result is tightly sealed and doesn't smell and put it in a suitable box for shipment. Label with "Material for scientific study only - No commercial value" and the address you may find here. Please send me an email when you dispatch, explaining what you are sending and including all relevant data (e.g. explanation of numbers).
What will it bring you? Let me ensure you that I'll be most grateful for your kind cooperation. The least I will do is to give you a honourable mention in the 'Acknowledgements' section in one of my future papers :-) But generally I'll be happy to refund you the shipping costs, unless you waive it or I can help you in other ways.
New Grenada
27-11-2007 09:44
Working on the
Colombian checklist reveals some well-known puzzles
about old localities who have not been traced again.
In fact, the denomination of the area as "New
Grenada" is somewhat of a puzzle, as the meaning of
that terminology has shifted over time.
Just out of curiosity, I searched for pictures on "New Grenada" in Google. I found a few, and the shift in what has to be called "New Grenada" is clearly illustrated in the following time-series.
Map of New Grenada
Author: John Pilkerton, 1811. Scale 1:3,400,000. Publshers: Cadell & Davies; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ome & Brown, London
Map of the Kingdom of New Grenada
Author: Hall Sidney, 1827. Scale 1:5,700,000. Publisher: Caddell, London.
Map of Venezuela, New Grenada & Equador
Author: Henny Tanner, 1836. Scale 1:6,969,600. Publisher: H.S. Tanner, Philadelphia
The first map shows that New Grenada at one time reached the borders of the Río Marañon, now in the territory of Perú. The last map is especially interesting, since it depicts the situation at the time from which many type material originate, that can still be found in museum collections. What struck me is the very different limitation of the 'Provinces" or "Departments". Colombia consisted in the mid-19th century of four parts: Cauca, Cundinamarca, Magdalena and Boyacá. Their geographical limits are, however, rather different from their current, being far more extensive. When interpreting old locality labels this knowledge can be very helpful to pinpoint certain places, which might not be located where one would expect them with today's map in front.
Just an example of some puzzles that I consider solved, where some geographical knowledge and modern facilities go hand in hand. One of the collectors who travelled extensively through Colombia at that time was Thomas Bland (1809-1885). Many of his collected material was studied by Pilsbry during his work for the Manual of Conchology. But quite often modern authors may be puzzled about some of the places that were visited by Bland.
There were three Drymaeus species with localities originating from Bland that, at first, I was unable to locate. "Between Salamina and Cabuyal, west of Ervé" was one of them, a locality reported for D. bogotensis (Pfeiffer). I looked up Ervé in the GNS gazetteer but nothing turned up. On the other hand, Salamina and Cabuyal - though not sounding like common names - turned up many times from different parts of Colombia. I decided to leave it and went on with my revision.
Another puzzling locality was "near Santa Ana", type locality of D. decoratus goniobasis Pilsbry, based on material collected by Bland. When I looked up "Santa Ana" in the gazetteer, many places of that name turned up from all over the country.
Finally, I came to D. geometricus (Pfeiffer), for which Pilsbry had another locality from Bland: "Forests in the mountains below Ervé, on the road to Santa Ana". I'm unaware if there has anything been published about the journeys of Bland in Colombia, but now I had three parts of a puzzle and I decided to find some solution. First the place "Ervé". This is a highly unusual spelling in Spanish, so it could be phonetical. I decided to look for "erve" in the GNS database, but not with "starts with" option enabled, but with the "contains" option instead. It turned up 6 names, of which 3 could be skipped right away. I ended up with "Páramo de Herveo" and two variants of the populated place "Herveo", all at or very close to 05° 05' 00" N 075° 10' 00" W, which is in Dept. Tolima. The first puzzle bit was in place.
The next step was to find Santa Ana, which could not be far away. When I scrutinized the list of names I did not find a place with a modern name that seemed logical to me. Then I was struck by the name Falán in the list, with a variant name Santa Ana, and located 25 km ENE of Herveo. That seemed logical to me, both places are in the region of Fresno in the upper Magdalena valley, from which the species have been reported.
Then finally Salamina and Cabuyal. With the location of Herveo in mind I looked through all the records for these names in the GNS gazetteer. Salamina is in Dept. Caldas, nearly 50 km NW of Herveo. And there is a "Quebrada Cabuyal" in Tolima, 60 km SE of Herveo. Both places are marked with red in the map below, while the three localties of the Drymaeus species mentioned are marked with yellow. Three species finally found their home.
Just out of curiosity, I searched for pictures on "New Grenada" in Google. I found a few, and the shift in what has to be called "New Grenada" is clearly illustrated in the following time-series.
Map of New Grenada
Author: John Pilkerton, 1811. Scale 1:3,400,000. Publshers: Cadell & Davies; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ome & Brown, London
Map of the Kingdom of New Grenada
Author: Hall Sidney, 1827. Scale 1:5,700,000. Publisher: Caddell, London.
Map of Venezuela, New Grenada & Equador
Author: Henny Tanner, 1836. Scale 1:6,969,600. Publisher: H.S. Tanner, Philadelphia
The first map shows that New Grenada at one time reached the borders of the Río Marañon, now in the territory of Perú. The last map is especially interesting, since it depicts the situation at the time from which many type material originate, that can still be found in museum collections. What struck me is the very different limitation of the 'Provinces" or "Departments". Colombia consisted in the mid-19th century of four parts: Cauca, Cundinamarca, Magdalena and Boyacá. Their geographical limits are, however, rather different from their current, being far more extensive. When interpreting old locality labels this knowledge can be very helpful to pinpoint certain places, which might not be located where one would expect them with today's map in front.
Just an example of some puzzles that I consider solved, where some geographical knowledge and modern facilities go hand in hand. One of the collectors who travelled extensively through Colombia at that time was Thomas Bland (1809-1885). Many of his collected material was studied by Pilsbry during his work for the Manual of Conchology. But quite often modern authors may be puzzled about some of the places that were visited by Bland.
There were three Drymaeus species with localities originating from Bland that, at first, I was unable to locate. "Between Salamina and Cabuyal, west of Ervé" was one of them, a locality reported for D. bogotensis (Pfeiffer). I looked up Ervé in the GNS gazetteer but nothing turned up. On the other hand, Salamina and Cabuyal - though not sounding like common names - turned up many times from different parts of Colombia. I decided to leave it and went on with my revision.
Another puzzling locality was "near Santa Ana", type locality of D. decoratus goniobasis Pilsbry, based on material collected by Bland. When I looked up "Santa Ana" in the gazetteer, many places of that name turned up from all over the country.
Finally, I came to D. geometricus (Pfeiffer), for which Pilsbry had another locality from Bland: "Forests in the mountains below Ervé, on the road to Santa Ana". I'm unaware if there has anything been published about the journeys of Bland in Colombia, but now I had three parts of a puzzle and I decided to find some solution. First the place "Ervé". This is a highly unusual spelling in Spanish, so it could be phonetical. I decided to look for "erve" in the GNS database, but not with "starts with" option enabled, but with the "contains" option instead. It turned up 6 names, of which 3 could be skipped right away. I ended up with "Páramo de Herveo" and two variants of the populated place "Herveo", all at or very close to 05° 05' 00" N 075° 10' 00" W, which is in Dept. Tolima. The first puzzle bit was in place.
The next step was to find Santa Ana, which could not be far away. When I scrutinized the list of names I did not find a place with a modern name that seemed logical to me. Then I was struck by the name Falán in the list, with a variant name Santa Ana, and located 25 km ENE of Herveo. That seemed logical to me, both places are in the region of Fresno in the upper Magdalena valley, from which the species have been reported.
Then finally Salamina and Cabuyal. With the location of Herveo in mind I looked through all the records for these names in the GNS gazetteer. Salamina is in Dept. Caldas, nearly 50 km NW of Herveo. And there is a "Quebrada Cabuyal" in Tolima, 60 km SE of Herveo. Both places are marked with red in the map below, while the three localties of the Drymaeus species mentioned are marked with yellow. Three species finally found their home.
Going through some rapids
25-11-2007 22:01
While sometimes things
just proceed slowly and steadily, this weekend felt
like steering a canoe through the rapids. But in a
pleasant way...
I submitted my publication to Zootaxa, only some minor technicalities need to be fixed before the review process will start. That is an exciting feeling, after so many years of not being able to publish!
One of the things I decided to give priority, was to revise and edit the Orthalicoidea from Francisco Borrero's checklist for Colombia. Many minor mistakes were corrected, but it is certainly a great advantage to have such a solid basis to work on, instead of having to collect all the data one by one. I made good progress and showed some pages to Francisco, who approved the idea for a joint paper.
He also mentioned that he has contacts with Fundación Jocotoco, an organisation that manages eight nature reserves in Ecuador. Plans are being made to set up a cooperation with the Cincinnati Museum and to start joint field work in the reserves. This could open up exciting new prospects...
Finally, out of the blue, I received today an email from someone in Perú, seeking identification of some Bulimulidae. I was able to quickly give him my opinion on the species figured (he had made excellent pictures!) and within short I received photos of some other unidentified species. As such people with an apparent keen interest in land snails are quite rare, I offered him help with literature since many old books and journals are difficult to consult in South America. And this way the contact network with like-minded people grows, slowly but steadily...
I submitted my publication to Zootaxa, only some minor technicalities need to be fixed before the review process will start. That is an exciting feeling, after so many years of not being able to publish!
One of the things I decided to give priority, was to revise and edit the Orthalicoidea from Francisco Borrero's checklist for Colombia. Many minor mistakes were corrected, but it is certainly a great advantage to have such a solid basis to work on, instead of having to collect all the data one by one. I made good progress and showed some pages to Francisco, who approved the idea for a joint paper.
He also mentioned that he has contacts with Fundación Jocotoco, an organisation that manages eight nature reserves in Ecuador. Plans are being made to set up a cooperation with the Cincinnati Museum and to start joint field work in the reserves. This could open up exciting new prospects...
Finally, out of the blue, I received today an email from someone in Perú, seeking identification of some Bulimulidae. I was able to quickly give him my opinion on the species figured (he had made excellent pictures!) and within short I received photos of some other unidentified species. As such people with an apparent keen interest in land snails are quite rare, I offered him help with literature since many old books and journals are difficult to consult in South America. And this way the contact network with like-minded people grows, slowly but steadily...
Nearing submission
18-11-2007 20:24
The checklist of
Ecuadorian Orthalicoidea is nearing its final stage.
At least for now. Two reviewers have kindly provided
their comments, so I put the manuscript in the format
prescribed by the journal (Zootaxa) and announced my
intention to one of the editors.
The localities are plotted here (blue ones sampled after 1950, yellow ones older).
Francisco Borrero, who was so kind to review the manuscript, also sent me some pictures which he received from contacts in southern Ecuador. The following picture is identified by me as Plekocheilus (Eurytus) roseolabrum (E.A. Smith, 1877), a rare species that has not been found after its original description.
The localities are plotted here (blue ones sampled after 1950, yellow ones older).
Francisco Borrero, who was so kind to review the manuscript, also sent me some pictures which he received from contacts in southern Ecuador. The following picture is identified by me as Plekocheilus (Eurytus) roseolabrum (E.A. Smith, 1877), a rare species that has not been found after its original description.