Weaver news

Weaver Wednesday [237] - Discovery [120]: Overview 3

2016-12-28 (759)

Weaver Wednesday (species list)

Overview - Discovery by author

Introduction

The formal naming of birds started with Linnaeus (1758) who described 5 weavers in 1758, followed by 4 more in 1766. Linnaeus did not see all the specimens himself - he compiled descriptions based on earlier works. The first 9 weavers to be described are relatively common, widespread species, and a key characteristic is that they occur near the coast and on the trading route of the early ships from the far East to Europe. Read more about the Weavers described by Linnaeus here.

The weavers were described by 49 authors (counting first authors only, where more than one was involved; Table 1). Most weavers were described by Reichenow (n=10), followed by Linnaeus (n=9) and Hartlaub (n=8). Reichenow also co-authored the descriptions of 2 more weavers. Most authors were British (16), followed by German (n=13) and American (n=5).

List of authors that published 2 or more new weaver species (full list in a Biodiversity Observations paper - see below):

quelea — Red-billed Quelea type,
figure from Brisson 1760
used by Linnaeus to
name this species

n	First author	Wikipedia summary
10	Reichenow	German ornithologist and herpetologist
9	Linnaeus	Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist
8	Hartlaub	German physician and ornithologist
7	Sharpe	English zoologist
6	Smith	Scottish surgeon and naturalist
6	Vieillot	French ornithologist
5	Cassin	American ornithologist
5	Shelley	English geologist and ornithologist
4	Bocage	Portuguese zoologist and politician
4	Gmelin	German naturalist
4	Ruppell	German naturalist and explorer
3	Bonaparte	French biologist and ornithologist
3	Cabanis	German ornithologist
3	Daudin	French zoologist
2	Boddaert	Dutch physician and naturalist
2	Chapin	American ornithologist
2	Fischer	German African explorer
2	Gray	English zoologist and author
2	Lichtenstein	German physician etc

Illustrations