Kai's research thread/caddisfly geekout

[Nast]

From all this talk of naming and genital qualities, one would think you were having a baby. But you're not, you've discovered a new species!

Congratulations!

[Telarus]

[Iason Ouabache]

Oh, I forgot to tell you congratulations, Kai. Great job! I told you science was hard.

[Kai]

Oh, I forgot to tell you congratulations, Kai. Great job! I told you science was hard.

It is hard (and technically, what I was doing when I discovered this species was more of technology than science), but it was totally worth it.

[Cain]

I'm a little late to this party, but congrats nonetheless!

[Kai]

I'm a little late to this party, but congrats nonetheless!

Thanks. 

[Kai]

Scratch that. This is why you always do your homework as a systematist. It's Oecetis parva, and I had to dig deep to find it out. Only one good drawing has ever been published, back in 1938, and thats obviously what it is. I was systematically (heh) comparing drawings of every Nearctic species of Oecetis to the mystery specimens. I've been using a 600 page tome of an unpublished dissertation, a world revision of Oecetis from 1992. O. parva was originally described by N Banks in 1907, but his descriptions and drawings were so piss poor that I thought, no, it can't be that. Chen, the author of this dissertation, mentions HH Ross published one lateral view of the male genitalia, an obscure paper from 1938. When I finally found it, it was obvious.

Sure, its a new state record, and I have a candidate female, and the little information on the organism means it deserves a redescription really. But. No new species.

This is what disappointment feels like. 

At least I'm a good systematist, if nothing else.

[Cain]

Oh, shit.

That sucks.  Still, hopefully, if that little can be found on it, then you can still do a lot with it, right?

[Triple Zero]

Aww. What Cain said, there's probably still a lot of research in it?

And, there's always more caddisflies in the ocean With your passion for systematics, I bet you're gonna stumble upon a new species some day. And if not, you're gonna discover something else serendipitiously awesome.

[Kai]

Oh, shit.

That sucks.  Still, hopefully, if that little can be found on it, then you can still do a lot with it, right?

I might be able to squeeze a publication out of it. Gonna talk with my adviser. :/

This is why good databases for taxonomic literature are absolutely necessary.

Of course, now I probably know more about Nearctic Oecetis diagnosis than everyone but two or three people.

I've got a 700 page dissertation sitting here on my desk. Must find some way to photocopy...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

At least I'm a good systematist, if nothing else.

Yes, and you now have proven integrity in your field.

Not finding a new species:  Fail.

Not being Fleischman & Pons:  Victory.

[Kai]

At least I'm a good systematist, if nothing else.

Yes, and you now have proven integrity in your field.

Not finding a new species:  Fail.

Not being Fleischman & Pons:  Victory.

And if nothing else, new site and state records along with a candidate female is means for even minor celebration. I could still get a publication out of this, maybe.

[Kai]

I spent $135 dollars on books last night. about 3/8th of that was for Betten's Trichoptera of New York State. The other five books were less. I got a 1900 copy of On the Descent of Man, shipped from england, for only 5 dollars. I bet it smells like god, you know, books that old smell so damn good.

I think I am going nuts. You know, the sort of harmless giggly nuts that gets you locked up in an asylum not because you're dangerous, but because you're just weird enough and obsessive enough that theres the slight chance you might go overboard and hurt yourself someway. I've been copying books and publications, for hours every day. I have no clue how much I've spent on photocopies now. Its like, this primal urge to collect so I have the biggest book penis. I look at my adviser's library and think, the only reason that man has lasted this long was because he's such a bibliophile, and he reads constantly. He understands the ICZN better than anyone else I know, maybe better than the council that put it together. My drawer of publications is getting fuller by the day, and soon I'll need a second. I know eventually what I'm going to have to do: buy a scanner and adobe acrobat, and scan them all into a computer. Or one of those automatic paper scanners. You know what I mean. All those people who talk about going paperless have them. PDF's take up so much less physical space. I could scan them all, scan to image and then clean them up, make them into permenent pdfs. I need software then, and that costs more money.

I'm gonna spend so much money on paper, and books, and computer shit I'll go broke and end up under a bridge somewhere rolling my library along in some shopping carts, collecting change for the photocopying machine.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I spent $135 dollars on books last night. about 3/8th of that was for Betten's Trichoptera of New York State. The other five books were less. I got a 1900 copy of On the Descent of Man, shipped from england, for only 5 dollars. I bet it smells like god, you know, books that old smell so damn good.

I think I am going nuts. You know, the sort of harmless giggly nuts that gets you locked up in an asylum not because you're dangerous, but because you're just weird enough and obsessive enough that theres the slight chance you might go overboard and hurt yourself someway. I've been copying books and publications, for hours every day. I have no clue how much I've spent on photocopies now. Its like, this primal urge to collect so I have the biggest book penis. I look at my adviser's library and think, the only reason that man has lasted this long was because he's such a bibliophile, and he reads constantly. He understands the ICZN better than anyone else I know, maybe better than the council that put it together. My drawer of publications is getting fuller by the day, and soon I'll need a second. I know eventually what I'm going to have to do: buy a scanner and adobe acrobat, and scan them all into a computer. Or one of those automatic paper scanners. You know what I mean. All those people who talk about going paperless have them. PDF's take up so much less physical space. I could scan them all, scan to image and then clean them up, make them into permenent pdfs. I need software then, and that costs more money.

I'm gonna spend so much money on paper, and books, and computer shit I'll go broke and end up under a bridge somewhere rolling my library along in some shopping carts, collecting change for the photocopying machine.

Welcome to academia. 

[Kai]

I spent $135 dollars on books last night. about 3/8th of that was for Betten's Trichoptera of New York State. The other five books were less. I got a 1900 copy of On the Descent of Man, shipped from england, for only 5 dollars. I bet it smells like god, you know, books that old smell so damn good.

I think I am going nuts. You know, the sort of harmless giggly nuts that gets you locked up in an asylum not because you're dangerous, but because you're just weird enough and obsessive enough that theres the slight chance you might go overboard and hurt yourself someway. I've been copying books and publications, for hours every day. I have no clue how much I've spent on photocopies now. Its like, this primal urge to collect so I have the biggest book penis. I look at my adviser's library and think, the only reason that man has lasted this long was because he's such a bibliophile, and he reads constantly. He understands the ICZN better than anyone else I know, maybe better than the council that put it together. My drawer of publications is getting fuller by the day, and soon I'll need a second. I know eventually what I'm going to have to do: buy a scanner and adobe acrobat, and scan them all into a computer. Or one of those automatic paper scanners. You know what I mean. All those people who talk about going paperless have them. PDF's take up so much less physical space. I could scan them all, scan to image and then clean them up, make them into permenent pdfs. I need software then, and that costs more money.

I'm gonna spend so much money on paper, and books, and computer shit I'll go broke and end up under a bridge somewhere rolling my library along in some shopping carts, collecting change for the photocopying machine.

Welcome to academia. 

Yeah. I'm okay with this sort of crazy, because even though other's may not like it much, you know, the sort of weird eccentric type that bothers you because they're different, its sorta fun.

I just found another group that wasn't found on site before, a Rhyacophilidae. Where the hell are all these critters hiding? Certainly not in the shifting sands! It seems like every other sample I pull out something that wasn't noted previously.