Ctenophthalmus nepalensis

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Ctenophthalmus nepalensis is a fictional parasitic insect of the order of the fleas (Siphonaptera). After its first description in 1969, the flea wasexposed in1973 as non-existent and a scientific joke .

Initial description

The first description of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis and Amalareus fossoris , two fleas supposedly from Nepal , was made in 1969 by an author who called himself Otto Suteminn in the journal of the Austrian Entomologists' Association . Suteminn was allegedly an employee of the regional museum in Kosiče in the Czechoslovakia , although it is unclear whether the Slovak city Košice or the small Czech community Kosice was meant. The description of the Siphonaptera was easy to recognize as a joke by experts , but the entire presentation and numerous formulations corresponded to the style of the entomologists . Apparently it was not peer-reviewed , published without hesitation, and remained an undiscovered scientific joke for several years .

Exposure

In 1973 the Dutch entomologist Frans GAM Smit from the Natural History Museum in London also published comments on the two fictitious species in the journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists . Smit states that a serious examination of the descriptions is not worth the effort or the printing costs, and that neither he nor contacts in Czechoslovakia have been able to locate the first descriptor or persons named by him. Experts for the Nepalese geography could not identify the specified sites either. However, Smit pointed out some hints of their true nature that were hidden in the first descriptions, namely place names and personal names, which make an unmasking sense in Austrian standard German and in Austrian dialects .

  • Otto Suteminn is a character in Karl May's novel The Two Quitzow's Last Journeys and other historical novels .
  • The genus Ctenophthalmus actually exists, instead of Amalareus there is a genus Amalaraeus , both taxa belong to the fleas group.
  • The Terra typica of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis , Khanshnid Khaib, can mean “Can’t nit geiba” ( cannot exist ) when properly pronounced .
  • The location Samashtir of several paratypes of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis can mean Sam ma bull ( we are broke ).
  • The location Kathaiwi of a paratype of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis can mean ka Teifi ( no devil ).
  • Apodemus roseus , the alleged host of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis , does not exist, but the genus Apodemus , the wood mice, does .
  • The supposedly closely related species Ctenophthalmus spalacis actually exists, but the author's quotation was Smit , 1963, and Jordan & Rothschild , 1911, would have been correct .
  • The host Canis fossa does not exist in the zoological nomenclature. But it can be understood as the Latinization of the term pit dog . In this special sense, a pit dog is a form of newspaper duck that was particularly popular in Austria until the middle of the 20th century. The pit dog is a content-wise nonsensical but convincingly formulated letter to the editor, with which an editorial office is to be deceived and induced to print.
  • The full author's citation for Amalaraeus penicilliger (Grube 1851) also points in this direction.
  • The alleged location Bhalari Satep of the paratypes of Amalareus fossoris is partly accessible to an explanation, the ending means is a Depp (is a Depp) .
  • The indication of the collector of Amalareus fossoris , leg. Z. Minař , is to be understood as an Austrian variant of the Swabian greeting if the r is correctly pronounced with Hatschek .

background

The author of the descriptions is considered to be the Austrian entomologist Hans Malicky , who at the end of the 1960s was secretary, member of the board of the Association of Austrian Entomologists and publisher of the Entomologische Nachrichtenblatt . It was a paper with no particular scientific claim that primarily published news from the field of hobby entomology. When Malicky wanted to raise the level of the publication and introduce a peer review , the working group withdrew the publisher's position, the Entomologische Nachrichtenblatt went up in 1969 in the journal of the working group of Austrian entomologists . In response, Malicky submitted the fictitious initial descriptions, knowing full well that no technical examination would take place. Hans Malicky was first associated with Ctenophthalmus nepalensis in 2003 by the Austrian parasitologist Horst Aspöck in an article on the 25th anniversary of the Austrian Entomological Society .

The fictional author of the first descriptions of Ctenophthalmus nepalensis and Amalareus fossoris , Otto Suteminn, was honored by Hans Malicky in 1991 with the specific epithet of the caddis fly Moropsyche suteminn .

Effects

The species may have been validly described. With Smit's comments, in which he declared Ctenophthalmus nepalensis Suteminn , 1969 and Amalareus fossoris Suteminn , 1969 to be invalid and unavailable names, both species have been removed from the zoological nomenclature . Entomologists, or at least experts on the Siphonaptera, are familiar with the joke about the two fictitious species. In the German-language edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia , an article for Ctenophthalmus nepalensis was created that reproduced Malicky's false information.

The journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists has been published in the annual volume since 2012. All papers submitted are submitted to external experts for assessment ( peer review process). In addition, all accepted articles are made available to the public via the ZOBODAT database no later than two years after the publication of the print version .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Otto Suteminn (pseudonym of Hans Malicky ): Results of the zoological research by Dr. Z. Loew in Nepal: 17. Two new Siphonaptera (Insecta). In: Journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists. 1969. Volume 21, pp. 75-76 ( digitized on ZOBODAT ).
  2. ↑ Hans Schaeflein: Entomological detective work. Serious mistakes in the entomological literature. In: Bavarian Entomologists' newsletter. 1993. Volume 42, No. 3, pp. 86-89 ( digitized on ZOBODAT ).
  3. ↑ a b c Frans GAM Smit : Notes on two fictitious fleas from Nepal. In: Journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists. 1973, Volume 24, p. 130 ( digitized on ZOBODAT ).
  4. ↑ a b Michael Ohl: The art of naming . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-089-5 , pp. 263-296. English: The Art of Naming . MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2018, ISBN 978-0-262-03776-1 .
  5. ↑ Axel Steiner: Die Flöhe des Herr Suteminn , Lepiblog , February 14, 2016, accessed on April 5, 2019.
  6. ^ Horst Aspöck : 25 years of the Austrian Entomological Society. In: Denisia. 2003, Volume 8, pp. 279-319, here p. 281, footnote 5 ( digitized on ZOBODAT ).
  7. ↑ Hans Malicky and Porntip Chantaramongkol : Eleven new caddis flies (Trichoptera) from Thailand and neighboring countries. Studies of Thai Caddisflies No. 7 . In: Entomologische Zeitschrift 1991, Volume 101, pp. 80-89, ZDB -ID 201140-2 .
  8. ^ NN: Guidelines for Authors. In: Journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists. Volume 69, 2017, pp. 173-175 ( digitized version ).