HMW Handbook of the Mammals of the World (3 Viewers)

Melanie · Apr 19, 2013

MarcelHaas said:
Mine arrived yesterday. I have to say I am rather disappointed in the artwork. It's all very sterile looking, with all species on one plate in the exact same posture...

I have some questions:

There are several new primates and lemurs which were described in 2013 and 2012. Are they all included? What about Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki und Piliocolobus pennantii epieni? Are they mentioned as full species or as subspecies? What about Sciurocheirus. Is this recognized as full genus or it is still include in Galago?

Richard Klim · Apr 19, 2013

MarcelHaas said:
But: no Homo sapiens... Although I can understand why 'our species' isn't featured, it would have been funny to have included artwork of a male, female and juveniles Although photos in the Breeding chapter might have been a tad too 18+, I reckon

Marcel, I also sometimes find it a little strange that Homo sapiens is usually omitted from works on mammals. But, as you suggest, it could otherwise result in the book being classified as soft porn, especially the behavioural photographs...

MarcelHaas · Apr 19, 2013

Melanie said:
There are several new primates and lemurs which were described in 2013 and 2012. Are they all included?

I honestly have no idea (I just like the books and am not at all into mammal taxonomy!). If you can give me a few examples, I can look them up for you, of course.

Melanie said:
What about Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki und Piliocolobus pennantii epieni? Are they mentioned as full species or as subspecies?

Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki is treated as a subspecies; Piliocolobus [pennantii] epieni as a full species.

Melanie said:
What about Sciurocheirus. Is this recognized as full genus or it is still include in Galago?

This is indeed recognized as a full genus.

Melanie · Apr 20, 2013

MarcelHaas said:
I honestly have no idea (I just like the books and am not at all into mammal taxonomy!). If you can give me a few examples, I can look them up for you, of course.

Thanks for the information. Here are the new species and subspecies:

Microcebus marohita (2013)
Microcebus tanosi (2013)
Lagothrix lugens defleri (2013)
Lagothrix lugens sapiens (2013)
Sciurocheirus makandensis (2013)
Nycticebus kayan (2013)
Callicebus vieirai (2012)
Gerp's mouse lemur Microcebus gerpi (2012)
Lesula guenon Cercopithecus lomamiensis (2012)
Mirza coquereli subspecies undescribed "Fiherenana River"

MarcelHaas · Apr 20, 2013

Hi Melanie,

The following in your list ARE NOT mentioned:

Melanie said:
Microcebus marohita (2013)
Microcebus tanosi (2013)
Lagothrix lugens defleri (2013) (lugens treated a subspecies of L. lagothricha!)
Lagothrix lugens sapiens (2013) (idem)
Sciurocheirus makandensis (2013)
Nycticebus kayan (2013)
Mirza coquereli subspecies undescribed "Fiherenana River"

The following ARE mentioned in the book:

Melanie said:
Callicebus vieirai (2012)
Gerp's mouse lemur Microcebus gerpi (2012)
Lesula guenon Cercopithecus lomamiensis (2012)

So, it seems that all taxa described in 2012 have been added, and those described in 2013 have not.

Melanie · Apr 20, 2013

Hello Marcel

thanks for the information. It's a bit pity that the new species are not recognized especially due to the fact that this volume was delayed from the past year to this year.

Richard Klim · Apr 21, 2013

Melanie said:
It's a bit pity that the new species are not recognized especially due to the fact that this volume was delayed from the past year to this year.

But with publication in April, even in this electronic age the copy presumably had to go to press some months ago. Including new taxa must have significant impact on layout, indexing, pagination etc (even without additional artwork). I suppose a self-contained STOP PRESS appendix could be more readily included, but it would still be out of date within a few months anyway.

Swissboy · Apr 29, 2013

I got my copy today. Have not done much more with it than just leafing through to check for completeness and lack of any faults. No problems at all, fortunately. The photos are stunning, as others had already mentioned. The plates are definitely a mixed bag. The often uniform postures may actually facilitate IDs. But then, is this series meant to be kind of a global mammal ID guide? Well anyway, there is a rather wide array of impressions, as far as I am concerned. Sometimes, the contrast between the vivid photos and the drab paintings is just sickening. Particularly some of the first plates where one gets the impression of "if you've seen one, you've seen them all". Not exactly a good argument to make special efforts to protect every single one of those species. That is, if the book is handled by decision makers who can't see behind the many very similar depictions.

Plate 34 with all the tiny spider monkeys like hung on clothes lines, is - to me - rather pathetic. And I love spider monkeys, that's why it really saddens me. Fortunately, plate 35 shows - among others - two close relatives in much higher quality. The uniform shapes are much less bothering when there is more variety in colors or the species shown in a somewhat more active state, examples being plates 47 and 48. And some simple variation in the tail positions makes for really enjoyable viewing. Thus plate 50 is one of my favorites despite the fact that the bodies all have exactly the same position.

I sure hope future volumes will get away from the monotony and from packing too many species onto a single plate.

Mysticete · Apr 30, 2013

I wouldn't get your hopes up...after the Marine Mammal volume we are going to start getting into some very speciose groups of small mammals. I think all the thousand plus bats are going into one book for instance

Melanie · Apr 30, 2013

There will be two different volumes for Rodents (+ Hares, Rabbits) and Bats.

Mysticete · Apr 30, 2013

Still..one book is going to cover 1200+ species of bat, while another book will have 2000 + rodents. Those plates are going to be ridiculously crowded.

cuckooroller · May 1, 2013

I received the volume yesterday. Very disappointing art work. Of course, the above reflections about the speciosity of certain groups is cogent. We will probably see even worse art work for certain volumes. Bats are difficult art subjects. I would imagine that a Bat volume that satisfies our thirst for good artwork would weigh about 20 pounds.

Order Scandentia? Will presumably be treated with the Insectivores?

Swissboy · May 1, 2013

cuckooroller said:
...............probably see even worse art work for certain volumes. ..........

I agree that some future volumes will probably best be expected with low hopes regarding the plates. The more I feel that a fine opportunity was missed regarding the present one.

andrew147 · May 11, 2013

I'm glad it's not just me! I was actually shocked by the monotony and, specifically, the reproduction size of the plates. Also disappointed with the continuation of the 'every-diagnosable-form-must-be-a-species' approach, initiated in volume 2.

The Ateles plate looks like a sheet of spider monkey wrapping paper. There are real arachnids in my garden that are bigger than those monkeys!

I would not have actually bought this book if I'd perused it in a shop first. I expect much better quality control for £100+

I was most looking forward to the small mammal coverage but I won't be buying subsequent volumes 'unseen'. I hope you're reading this Lynx Edicions!

Melanie · May 11, 2013

andrew147 said:
Also disappointed with the continuation of the 'every-diagnosable-form-must-be-a-species' approach, initiated in volume 2.

Well, it is debatable to see subspecies as species (e.g. the Procolobus pennantii group) but i don't see that as disappointment as Colin Groves split these taxa several years ago.

andrew147 · May 13, 2013

Aye, but HMW do not seem to be consistently applying any particular species concept.

A single work which recognises only one giraffe species, one tiger and a broad Canis lupus seems to be acting somewhat arbitrarily in claiming that there are 11 different klipspringers and 22 species of capuchin monkey!

There were similar issues with HBW - more traditional approaches in early volumes (e.g. Anatidae), more radical in later (e.g. Timaliidae) - but, to me, the bird splits seemed progressive rather than facile.

Mysticete · May 14, 2013

I think it largely comes down to the authors and what sort of taxonomic approach they prefer. Obviously there are proposals to split wolves and tigers, but they have not reached mainstream acceptance and the authors of those proposals did not write those sections. A lot of the primate taxonomy was established a while ago and pretty widely accepted, while Colin Groves was one of the principal authors of the bovid chapter with it's huge number of splits.

Melanie · May 31, 2013

Today I've got my copy. From the first browsing I must say the illustrations are indeed disappointing. I've expected a much better work from such a prolific artist like Stephen Nash. But on the other hand the photographic work is better and the descriptions are very comprehensive. A very good point in this volume are the German common names of the newly describes primates (e.g. for Cercopithecus lomamiensis) which can be find in no other recent publication.

andrew147 · May 31, 2013

I'm nullifying my HMW Primates disappointment in anticipation of Primates of the World: An Illustrated Guide by the late Jean-Jacques Petter.

François Desbordes's illustrations are mind-bogglingly wonderful!

Swissboy · May 31, 2013

andrew147 said:
I'm nullifying my HMW Primates disappointment in anticipation of Primates of the World: An Illustrated Guide by the late Jean-Jacques Petter.

François Desbordes's illustrations are mind-bogglingly wonderful!

Any link to a site where one can see samples?

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