Hi lovely community, and I’m here to find some guidance! 
I really need to know how is the process of describing a new species. Does anyone have experience on the subject? please, help me.
To make a long story short, last year I found what appears to be a undescribed gastropod, which after a review of Chilean species, does not match any described so far, nor invasive species.
Now I’m unemployed, and I think I have the time to conduct a mission like this one. and I have few clues how to do it, is there any recommendation? is there any book which I could follow? a guide? Of course there is no fund or money, so this would be a low-cost process. LOL
I’ve heard of people doing species descriptions in their master’s courses, but I don’t think it’s in my interests to “terrestrialize” myself in a master program focusing in a terrestrial gastropod, since I’m a marine biologist, and need to focus back to the ocean.
just that, and I can´t not to do it, is my New Year’s resolution :)
How many specimens have you found/collected? Just the one? Typically, especially with invertebrates, it is best to have a number of individuals in order to appreciate natural variation and better describe the species (especially having a male + female).
I don’t know what the process is with gastropods, but I’ve described a few mirid (true bug) species and we had to have males (with male genitalia being very important).
You’ll also need to ‘fit’ it into the tree of life and understand where it fits compared to other gastropods, e.g. is it just a new species? New genus? Which family does it belong to?
There is a book Describing Species by Judith Winston, 1999. Probably out of print since what I see on Amazon is $50-60 US.
Very cool! First I’ll echo that you should have a good number of specimens, probably at least around 20 total but from different localities. I’ll also echo: What group is it? That will determine how you describe it. Does it have a shell? Is it hermaphroditic or not? Most terrestrial gastropods don’t have different sexes so you don’t have to deal with male/female in different individuals (although there are some exceptions, especially in the tropics). Either way you’ll want to have preserved animals (not just the shell) for dissection: land snail/slug genitalia are key for identification. If you want to describe a new species, you should definitely have a good amount of experience dissecting them (see this helpful guide). You should also be pretty familiar with the related species. How do you know it’s actually new?
All this being said, the best thing would be to probably send it to an expert in that group. They’ll be able to determine exactly what it is and where it should go. It takes years of experience to be able to describe new species, as well as lots of experience with the writing/publishing process. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do it though! There are lots of amateurs who describe species—but they’ve had a lot of experience with the animals. My first bit of advice would be to read all the literature you can find on this potential new species’ relatives. BHL is a good place to start. Reach out to some people who are working on those groups now and ask them for advice. Maybe send them some specimens. There’s lots of collaboration regarding new species.
Frequently, species that are known to be undescribed go a long time without formal description. Sometimes this is because the whole group is in such a mess that describing new species doesn’t make sense. Sometimes it’s because there are no experts in a group. Sometimes the experts just don’t have enough time or specimens to describe it well. I’d also say it’s getting harder to describe new species because standards are higher—which is a good thing, but it means you really have to know this new species inside and out. Often they don’t get described until the group is redone genetically, when a whole slew of new species get described.
There are lots of terrestrial gastropods awaiting description, though, and I’m glad someone else has an interest in describing them!
Describing a species is fairly simple if you know the rules. First, you need specimens of both male and female. You will have to write a paper in order for the species to be described. Before applying a scientific name to name, you must check with ICZN to see if the name you want to use is available and follows Latin grammar rules. After getting a name, you must say within the paper how the species differs from closely related or visually similar species. DNA sampling will help. I don’t know the case with gastropods but if there’s not much sampling among the group of organisms, you may have to gloss over that aspect or collect DNA samples from many species. So as a wrap-up; specimens, diagnosis, publication. There are several publishers that will accept your name but it seems the most regularly used publisher is Zootaxa.
This 2003 paper by Vermeulen & Maassen, The non-marine mollusk fauna of the Pu Luong, Cuc Phuong, Phu Ly, and Ha Long regions in northern Vietnam describes proper survey and collection techniques.
And this 2007 paper by Maassen & Gittenberger Three new clausiliid land snails from Tonkin, northern Vietnam (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Clausiliidae) is an excellent example of how new gastropod species are described. As you can see there is a lot of detail that needs to go into the identification and description including not just overt characteristics like the shell (unless that’s extremely unique and distinctive), but often details of the sexual organ anatomy, details of the radula, etc, etc.
I know Vermeulen (worked with him on some ecology evaluations) and he is a true expert in gastropods, and extremely humble about his knowledge too. I don’t know Maassen, but if they worked together it’s a pretty sure thing he is of a similar sort. It may be work reaching out to someone like them, but it’s best to try to find someone who has experience with the fauna of the area you did your collection in.
The Winston book is good and very detailed, although out-of-date in regard to DNA and molecular evidence. Even if related species have not yet been sequenced, it would be valuable to get at least barcode sequences (COI for gastropods) for your snails to avoid someone having to locate material and do it in the future.
As noted, looking at relevant articles published in recent years is a good way to understand what is expected for each taxonomic group. Zookeys articles are all open access. The Gastropod ones are here:
The Zoological Code is frequently confusing to read, but is online and you should follow the requirements:
https://www.iczn.org/the-code/the-international-code-of-zoological-nomenclature/the-code-online/
It is not clear whether you already know the genus for the animal. If so, the new description should relate it to the wider (ideally world) fauna for the genus - explaining how it is distinguished from close relatives. If the genus is large, this may be very challenging, but it is the only way truly to rule out this snail being a well known species introduced from elsewhere.
If there is a taxonomist working on the gastropod group (subfamily, tribe, whatever), it could be worthwhile seeking their assistance/guidance and becoming joint authors, since they should have the wider familiarity necessary.
You should not describe what you think is a new species without an expert in the group if you’re not one and not even planning to become one. First of all, it is likely not a new species, many species of land gastropods are extremely variable, specimens of one species from two different populations may look very different. If it is a new species, describing it is not something that you can do after reading one book, you should know the group very well and you should be competent in taxonomy, normally it’s taking at least 5 years to became such an expert. You should propose to describe it in co-authorship to some expert who have such experience, preferably with species from the same family from South America, and who published it in some serious journals indexed in Scopus, and if he or she will confirm that species is new then you should publish it also in some serious journal, at least in Strombus or better.
To piggyback on this, barcoding the COI region is very much a well-established, commodity procedure. I suspect poking around on ibol.org will yield some resources as far as how to get that done and an estimate of cost. If your morphological indications are promising, I would look to malacological societies and maybe organizations chartered to promote biodiversity to see who issues small grants. There’s definitely money floating around that could pay for things like this that gets overlooked and underutilized because it’s not enough to support a full-blown research program.
Hola Diego, que gusto saber que estas interesado en incursionar en el tema de los moluscos. Para describir una nueva especie hay reglas generales pero otras solo aplican dependiendo del grupo en cuestión. Para decidir si es posible o no, primero hay que saber:
- ¿terrestre, marina o dulceacuática?
- ¿cuántos ejemplares tienes?
- ¿tiene concha?
- ¿solo tienes la concha o también tienes la parte blanda?
- ¿lo conservaste o sigue en vida libre pero sabes donde esta?
A partir de tus respuestas te puedo dar consejos más detallados, incluso nombres de colegas que te puedan guiar.
Saludos, Deneb
Bienvenido al foro! Ese es un resumen bastante agradable y conciso. (Apologies for any translation strangeness)
Welcome to the forum! That is a rather nice and concise summary.
Thank you for your time people, really appreciate that.
This is a tree climbing micro snail, and after a small survey of the area where I used to live, I found it in small patch of native forest, where I collect them, in alcohol at 90%. I did a small research, and I found it belong to charopids, but can’t find the appopiate genus in that family, either because of the little information available about the family in Chile or because of some other reason (I know I should go deep in this, but at that time I was with a regular work). My intention is to visit the mollusks collection at the national museum and see what happens.
After a small trip to around my region, I did ocassional surveys looking for other snails and also looking on trees, and found this snail in a small forest patch in a small area, but one hundred km far from the first point, it was surprising. Externally, they look the same.
I’ve recorded the encountered area, and also, I’ve collected them, always in alcohol at 90%
Hola Diego,
Aquí te paso el libro de Winston (1999): http://library.lol/main/577AA3CEA8CFD40E0DC7639F891C5032
Ah OK probably too small to dissect then (unless you’re really good). I’d read through these papers (as well as some that they cite) and contact some of the authors:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262688281_A_new_Charopidae_from_Chile_and_Argentina_Stephacharopa_calderaensis_n_gen_and_n_sp_with_remarks_on_the_taxonomy_of_the_genus_Stephadiscus_HYLTON_SCOTT_1981_Mollusca_Gastropoda_Pulmonata
https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4007.2.13
You’re going to need to select a “type” specimen, cited in the paper. This is a collection of individuals collected at one place at one time, that show the characteristics of the species. That type specimen must be deposited in an appropriate museum.
You’re going to need as detailed a description as possible. Commentators above have listed things its good to have. You can provide less information if that’s all you have, though.
Co-authoring this with a recognized expert is definitely the way to go, if possible. There are details of writing the article that can invalidate your attempt to name the species, and you want to avoid them.
Yes, I would agree with involving an experienced taxonomist. One benefit of letting someone else do the write up is that, if you drop a few hints, they may name the species after you. If you describe it yourself, it is considered rather bad form to name it after yourself.
regarding that, I was daydreaming the other day about that, and wondering if I could name this tiny snail after my boyfriend.
Es probable que tengas un heterobranquio, los cuales son hermafroditas, lo que significa que no necesitas buscar el macho y la hembra, pero si necestias confirmar que el animal es maduro. Necesitas hacer una disección del animal (si tienes la parte blanda) y debes describirla. Si al hacer la disección encuentras evidencia de que es un animal inmaduro, entonces no puedes usarlo para describirlo. No es nada recomendable que realices la descripción de la especie si tienes exclusivamente un animal, necesitas ir a buscar más.
Thank you,Is mi first time in this kind of forum. I am from Mexico :)
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