The Geography of Speciation in Neotropical Salamanders

Transparency and secrecy in citizen science: Lessons from herping

In this paper I will outline a worry that citizen science can promote a kind of transparency that is harmful. I argue for the value of secrecy in citizen science. My argument will consist of analysis of a particular community (herpers), a particular citizen science platform (iNaturalist, drawing contrasts with other platforms), and my own travels in citizen science. I aim to avoid a simple distinction between science versus non-science, and instead analyze herping as a rich practice [MacIntyre, 2007]. Herping exemplifies citizen science as functioning simultaneously within and outside the sphere of science. I show that herpers have developed communal systems of transmitting and protecting knowledge. Ethical concerns about secrecy are inherently linked to these systems of knowledge. My over-arching aim is to urge caution in the drive to transparency, as the concepts of transparency and secrecy merit close scrutiny. The concerns I raise are complementary to those suggested by previous philosophical work, and (I argue) resist straightforward solutions.

A new species of Bolitoglossa (Amphibia: Plethodontidae) from the central highlands of Guerrero, Mexico

We describe a new species of salamander of Bolitoglossa (Oaxakia) Parra-Olea, García-París and Wake, 2004 from the cloud forests of the central portion of the Sierra Madre del Sur highlands in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Bolitoglossa coaxtlahuacana sp. nov. is currently known only from the type locality and can be differentiated from other members of the group by morphological, coloration, and molecular evidence. With the description of this new taxon, the number of species in the subgenus Oaxakia increases to six.