New Species Owe Names to Highest Bidder

Occasionally these naming fundraisers flop. In 1999 a Texas bird-watcher, unaffiliated with Biopat, tried to auction off the name of an antshrike he spotted in Brazil for $200,000 to benefit his state's Audubon Society chapter. No one met his price.

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Despite their worthy goals, these efforts have begun to worry officials at the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the 112-year old body that has the final word on scientific names for plants and animals. ICZN officials publicly questioned Biopat's practices in a February 2000 letter to the journal Science.

"If new species start to acquire a commercial value that's pretty hefty, then there's suddenly an incentive for people to 'discover,' and I use that word in quotes, new species," said Andrew Polaszek, the commission's executive secretary, in an interview. "And the ramifications of that are enormous."

Polaszek has been conducting an online survey of the commission's 27 members, who are scattered across the globe, to determine whether the ICZN should issue a formal policy. One option, he said, would be for the commission itself to oversee the auctions. "Whether we like it or not, it's already happening," he said.

Even some scientists who back the idea of auctioning scientific names for a good cause said they wish conservation groups were not forced to take such steps.

"Theoretically, I don't like it, as I believe Latin names are best if they represent some important and easy to remember aspect of the species, particularly since these names should persist into the foreseeable future," Tim McClanahan, a senior conservation zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, wrote in an e-mail. "A white crane should have a name like Ibis alba, not Ibis schwartznegeri. Practically, however, I commiserate with the need to raise money for these often rare species and know that we have to use all types of tricks to raise money for things, where tricks should not be, but are required."

Plus, many scientists point out, plenty of species already have bizarre or honorific names. Vampyroteuthis infernalis, a squid relative, is stuck with a moniker meaning "vampire squid from hell." And in 2005, entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly B. Miller named three slime-mold beetles Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi, after President Bush, Vice President Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. (Wheeler and Miller meant the names, which were accepted by the commission, as honorifics, and Bush himself called Wheeler to thank him for the tribute.) Unlike naming decisions made by scientists toiling in their labs, Thursday's auction in Monaco will boast plenty of glamour. Prince Albert will welcome the guests, who are invited to "Leave Your Mark on Our Blue Planet," for pre-dinner cocktails in the museum's famed aquarium. The suggested opening bid for the Hemiscyllium walking shark, which Erdmann and Allen found in Indonesia's Cendrawasih Bay, is set at $500,000. The bidding for an attractive, spiky Pterois lionfish starts at $250,000.

Conservation International President Peter A. Seligmann said in an interview that all the money raised in the auction -- which has the Indonesian government's backing -- will go to preserve the Bird's Head Seascape and to train Indonesian marine scientists.

"Historically, many scientists have rewarded benefactors who have supported their work," Seligmann said. "In a way, this is a way to create more benefactors for the protection of nature and science."

Staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.