pted asimilar exercise ’s estimated 20,000 types of licles.

    is certain is t t deal of life out tual quantities arenecessarily estimates based on extrapolations—sometimes exceedingly expansiveextrapolations. In a erry Eritution saturated a stand of nineteen rain forest trees in Panama icide fog,ted everyt fell into s from tuallyed t seasonally to make sure  migrant species)ypes of beetle. Based on tribution of beetles else, ts in ttypes, and so on up a long cimated a figure of 30 million species ofinsects for tire planet—a figure er said oo conservative. Ota  types, underlining t , sucably o least as muco supposition as to science.

    According to treet Journal, t 10,000 active taxonomists”—not a great number , t (about $2,000 per species) and paper fifteentypes are logged per year.

    “It’s not a biodiversity crisis, it’s a taxonomist crisis!” barks Koen Maes, Belgian-bornebrates at tional Museum in Nairobi,  to try in tumn of 2002. taxonomists in told me. “t, but I tired,”  takes eigo ten years to train a taxonomist, but none are coming along in Africa.

    “to be let go at ter seven years in Kenya, ract  being renewed. “No funds,” Maesexplained.

    riting in ture last year, tis G. ed t tige and resources” for taxonomists everyions, tempt to relate aneaxon2to existing species and classifications.” Moreover, mucaxonomists’ time istaken up not  simply ing out old ones. Many,according to Godfray, “spend most of trying to interpret teentury systematicists: