Re: [Killietalk] Genus level changes

["Scott Davis" <unclescott at prodigy_net>]

Welcome back Ken!

I'm sure that returning to the hobby after leaving it about 1979 is pretty
mind boggling. Imagine though if you had left the hobby in 1954 and returned
about 1979.

As Doug has noted, Ken Lazara and the Arizona Rivulins Club have
collaborated in making available Ken's list, which is a terrific quick
reference. http://ark.aka.org/AList.htm  Bill Vannerson took that list and
made it available as a file which can be added to one's spell checker.
http://chika.aka.org/library/spellchk/spellchk.htm

As Barry noted while I was fumbling with the references below, not every
source is in agreement. We sometimes find ourselves auctioning killies by
introducing it as Fundulopanchax so-and-so, also named...  It might be fun
introducing a killie as "The Austrolebias also known as ..."

There have been several people working with the killie - Dr. Wilson Costa,
Dr Huber, among others. The AKA has published Ken Lazara's Killifish Master
Index, 4th Edition 4 years ago and it is very useful in tracing the
developments in the name game. I believe he has moved over from teaching
college physics to working with the NY Natural History Museum.

Jean H Huber has been publishing his Killi-Data in several editions. It is
also a terrific resource. He has a Killi-Data website one can subscribe to.
He also has a subscription arrangement for those who have bought one of the
books. If you are interested in Rivulus, he also wrote the exhaustive
catalogue on them: Review of Rivulus, Ecobiogeography-Relationships.
http://www.killi-data.org/  Huber also has an intriguing work on the
evolution of killies and continental drift.

Roger Brousseau has also issued the second edition of his South American
Annual Killifish. That can be updated with a registration (which I also
should do). There is also the South American Annual Killie site which Roger
helped start.  http://thearkfoundation.org/SAA/

Wildekamp's multi-volume World Of Killies continues to be issued. It also is
very useful in tracing the history of names and distribution of killies.

You will get a little more information on these works and a tantalizing
description of several other projects on the AKA site under Publications.
Most of the above are for sale through the AKA store. Or get ahold of Dick
Martino. Dick also attends a lot of the killie shows, graciously lugging a
lot of publications with him and you might check with him for his schedule.

These books are not inexpensive and you will see how your AKA dues can be
mighty helpful when buying them. If you reside near a killie affiliate, I
would strive to visit members of that group who have these works so you
could preview them. Look before buying.

The AKA's Larry Botkin is working on a Database program to be used with
killie shows. A copy was used for the CKA show this last spring and speeded
up the process. He is still fine tuning it, but is up to 1700 entries
(including locations, importations) and is still proof reading and working
on it.

There is and has been other academic research on killies. Some hobbyist work
afoot too. If you are interested in DNA research, do a Google search for the
work of  "Murphy, W.J. & G.E. Collier" or Tomas Hrbek. You can really get
into some heavy reading.

Use the links on the AKA site to get to yet more info. I imagine that the
above would keep you busy for a bit though.

All the best!
Scott Davis



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