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Desperately seeking 1947 AFS common names list!


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#1 olaf

olaf
  • NANFA Member

Posted 21 January 2015 - 01:01 PM

(I posted this to the AFS facebook group as well, but a wider net can't hurt, right?)

Does anyone happen to have (or know where to get) a PDF of the 1947 AFS list of common and scientific names?
It's surprisingly hard to find and is apparently not online, though later editions are.
I'm trying to figure out when/why/how the Blue Sucker (Cycleptus elongatus) was assigned a common name that--at least in reference to that species--never appears in any publication until about 1930 (as far as I can find, and I've examined a ton of them), though it does come up a couple times as a common name for Campostoma (thanks to Rafinesque). I'd also like to learn why the several common names used consistently for over 100 years were not chosen. My hope is that something in that list's preface or bibliography (I hope it has one) will give me a clue.
Better yet, does anyone have a filing cabinet full of notes from the meetings leading up to that first list, or a talkative uncle who was on the committee? Thanks!
Redhorse ID downloads and more: http://moxostoma.com

#2 olaf

olaf
  • NANFA Member

Posted 21 January 2015 - 11:41 PM

I found it! Turns out that in addition to publishing the list as a separate entity (available to non-members for 25 cents), the AFS also published it in the 1948 Transactions of the AFS. Not everyone will be able to use this link, but here's where I found it: http://dx.doi.org/10...7.1948.10493257
Sadly, it told me almost nothing new, except that the only other name considered was Missouri Sucker, a name which would have been disqualified immediately for containing a place name that did not convey the species' entire range. I still know only that sometime in (I think) the 1920s, the name Blue Sucker appeared and took over.
Determined to figure out when and (I hope) why.
Redhorse ID downloads and more: http://moxostoma.com




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