326 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



of the same sort. In the 8 years preceding, the cable had suffered 15 

 failures, entailing repairs costing up^Yards of $12,000. Here an 

 identification solved a costly engineering problem. 



THE FIELD OF ECOLOGY 



Engineering problems accompanied by specimens are easier to solve 

 than ecological ones unsupported by specimens. Kecently an ecologist 

 was discussing the. behavior of a green parrotfish in the waters about a 

 tropical island. You can imagine his consternation when he was 

 asked to which of 10 possible species he was referring ! 



The importance of specific names to ecologists may be illustrated 

 by this excerpt froui a letter received by one of our Museum curators 

 from a well-known student of jungle life : "I have all of my volumi- 

 nous field notes ready and only await the names of the [specimens] 

 which I sent you a long time ago. Have you had a chance to go over 

 them ? I have the names of most, but there are still many left and I can 

 publish nothing until I get them." 



And Charles Elton, in his book "Animal Ecology," writes : "One of 

 the biggest tasks confronting anyone engaged upon ecological sui-vey 

 work is that of getting all the animals identified. Indeed, it is usually 

 impossible to get all groups identified down to species, owing to lag 

 in the systematic study of some of them. The material collected may 

 either be worked out by the ecologist himself or he may get the speci- 

 mens identified by experts. The latter plan is the better of the two, 

 since it is much more sensible to get animals identified properly by a 

 man who knows them well, than to attain a fallacious sense of inde- 

 pendence by working them out oneself — wrong." 



EVOLUTION AND GENETICS STUDIES 



The abundance of the pasturage in what are known as "the meadows 

 of the sea" is being evaluated these days by the oceanographers in 

 terms of the chlorophyll collected by their continuous plankton re- 

 corders without having to take the pains of identifying the many 

 species of which the plankton mass is composed. At least samplings of 

 the organisms involved should be specifically determined, for there 

 are bad as well as good planktoners in the sea, just as there are good 

 and bad plants on some of our western ranges. Pasturage in meadows 

 on land, by certain tests, may yield a very high chlorophyll rating, 

 but a lot of it could be locoweed. If the marine chlorophyll ratings 

 are to have i-eal significance, the species on which they are based need 

 to be known. 



In evolutionary and genetic studies, it is especially important to 

 know well the species dealt with and the literature about them. Years 

 of effort can go for naught if pertinent taxonomic finds, procedures, 

 and discoveries are disregarded. 



