The Backbone

New Species Named in Honor of Fish Division Curator Emeritus

 

Top: Eviota springeri, USNM 222651, male. Bottom: Eviota springeri, paratype, USNM 222653, male. Photograph by S.L. Jewett, Smithsonian Institution, NMNH, Division of Fishes.

Vic  Springer, Curator Emeritus in the Division of Fishes, has a new namesake, an Indian Ocean goby, Eviota springeri.  Former Fishes Collections Manager, Susan Jewett, and David Greenfield, Professor Emeritus from the University of Hawaii and current Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences, named the new fish species in honor of Vic who collected the holotype and several paratypes from the Mascarene Islands during a 1976 expedition.  The full article documenting and describing this new species can be found in Greenfield, D. W. & Jewett, S. L. (2012) Two new Gobiid fishes of the genus Eviota from the Indian Ocean (Teleostei: Gobiidae). Zootaxa 3515: 67-74. 

 

Feather Identification Lab welcomes Ai Nonaka

 

Ai at Work. Photo by Carla Dove

Ai Nonaka will be assisting with DNA sampling in the Feather Lab during the busy fall migration period.  Ai is taking some time away from Fishes to learn the techniques and methods of collecting ‘bird snarge’ for DNA barcoding.   Ai is supported through FAA funding.