Minor on Herpsilochmus gentryi B. Whitney & J. Alvarez-Alonso, 1998 (1 Viewer)

[Taphrospilus]

Herpsilochmus gentryi B. Whitney & J. Alvarez-Alonso, 1998 OD here

Etymology.--It is with great pleasure that we name this small canopy-inhabiting antwren in honor of the late Alwyn H. Gentry, one of the most gifted and productive field botanists of all time. Beyond his legendary stature as a field man, however, Dr. Gentry was a great systematist and phytogeographer, whose many published works have clearly guided the thinking of a generation of students of Neotropical biodiversity and conservation, including us. His early (1981) paper on the edaphic specialization of some Passifiora species was seminal in demonstrating the deterministic role of edaphic heterogeneity in understanding Amazonian biodiversity. Indeed, the local distribution of Herpsilochtnus gentryis apparently dictated almost entirely by edaphic control of the woody plant community. Finally, Dr. Gentry spent a great deal of time in the Iquitos region, and had a special interest in the white-sand plant communities of northern Peru (see Conservation below). His influence will be pervasive in conservation planning in most areas of the Neotropics forever The English name Ancient Antwren derives from our postulation of the new species' divergence from ancestral stock perhaps several million years before present. Of necessity, our hypothesis of the vicariant events involved in its differentiation will be presented elsewhere.

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:

Ancient Antwren Herpsilochmus gentryi B. Whitney & J. Alvarez-Alonso, 1998
Alwyn H. Gentry (1945–1993) was a US botanist. He wrote extensively (1970s–1990s) on biodiversity in Neotropical rainforests. For some years he was Senior Curator at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Over a 25-year research career he published c.200 scientific papers and collected c.80,000 plant specimens. His major work was Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America. He died in the plane crash that also killed Ted Parker (q.v.). An amphibian is named after him.

OK middle name already solved in The Key to Scientific Names as Alwyn Howard Gentry. Here a picture of him.

The Amphibian Pristimantis gentryi Lynch & Duellman, 1997 OD Lynch, J. D., and W. E. Duellman. 1997. Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus in western Ecuador. Systematics, ecology, and biogeography. Special Publication. Natural History Museum, University of Kansas 23: 1–236. (not seen). Not surprising at least two plants named after him:

• Anthurium gentryi Croat, Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 14: 104 (1986).
• Syngonium gentryanum Croat, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 68(4): 612 (1982).

Take it for what's worth.