The 1817 Florida Expedition was the first major privately funded collecting endeavor of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The Expedition was financed and organized by the newly elected president, William Maclure and included an Academy founder and Curator, Thomas Say, Vice President George Ord and recently elected member Titian Peale. The focus of this paper is on the scientific results of the Expedition. This includes specimens collected, presentation of results through oral reports, publication in the newly (1817) founded Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences as well as other journals, and the preservation of the collections and their use in research at later dates. The coupling of fieldwork, presentation, and publication with primary specimen data being made available for future study established a model for American natural history museums based on European precursors. In addition to establishing many new genera and species, the Expedition extended the observations of William Bartram on several organisms and supported a solid foundation for the new American sciences of conchology (malacology) and carcinology.

On the basis of shell characters, we review the eight Recent and two fossil species of the fasciolariid neogastropod genus Leucozonia Gray, 1847. These are L. nassa (Gmelin, 1791), type species, from the tropical western Atlantic, a geographically variable species; L. cerata (Wood, 1828) from the tropical eastern Pacific; L. leucozonalis (Lamarck, 1822) from the western Caribbean; L. ocellata (Gmelin, 1791) from the western Atlantic; L. ponderosa Vermeij and Snyder, 1998, from Ilha Trindade, Brazil; L. rudis (Reeve, 1847) from the eastern Pacific; L. triserialis (Lamarck, 1822) from the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic; L. tuberculata (Broderip, 1833) from the Galapagos and Cocos Islands in the eastern Pacific; L. rhomboidea (Gabb, 1873) from the Gurabo Formation (early Pliocene) of the Dominican Republic; and L. striatula Vermeij, 1997, from the Cercado (late Miocene) and basal Gurabo Formations of the Dominican Republic. We review species named as or assigned to Leucozonia. The new genus Psammostoma (type species: Mazzalina costata Dall, 1890, early Miocene, Florida) may be related to the ancestry of Leucozonia. In shell characters, Leucozonia appears to be most closely related to the Indo-West Pacific genera Latirolagena Harris, 1897, and Latirus Montfort, 1810, in the latter's narrow sense. These three genera, together with Psammostoma and several others, have in common the unusual trait of beaded or discontinuous spiral ridges (lirae) on the adaxial side of the shell's outer lip. On biogeographic grounds we argue that beaded lirae evolved at least twice in the Fasciolariidae. The labral tooth of L. nassa and six other species of Leucozonia is a derived feature within the genus and evolved independently of that in three other fasciolariid groups: Benimakia Habe, 1958; Dennantia Tate, 1888; and Opeatostoma Berry, 1958.

Genus novum: Psammostoma Vermeij & Snyder.

In the present paper, the brackish-water mudsnail genus Hydrobia is used to assess the degree of anatomical differentiation among cryptic species. Detailed anatomical data for seven populations from four taxa are compared to genetic data in order to test whether there are discrete anatomical differences among taxa, whether it is possible to partition the total anatomical variation into hierarchical among-taxa and among-population components, to find those anatomical characters that statistically discriminate taxa, and to make inferences about the mode of evolution.

A qualitative anatomical analysis did not yield any character states that could be used to differentiate among taxa, and a PCA of quantitative anatomical characters did not discriminate among species. Moreover, no significant variance component could be detected in the nested analysis of morphological variance among lineages and/or populations. However, discriminant analyses (DA) with mtDNA lineages as grouping variables resulted in highly significant discrimination models for sexes combined, females and males. The DA's retained up to 16 variables and up to six of them showed significant differences among lineages. Generally, shell characters were performing better than soft body characters. The poor performance of soft body characters is attributed to an unusually high intraspecific variability in Hydrobia. Anatomical, ecological, and biogeographical characteristics that could have contributed to the high variability are discussed.

The evolution of anatomical variables among lineages was tested for deviation from expectations derived from a stochastic evolution model. The test showed that the null hypothesis of stochastic evolution according to the Brownian motion model could not be rejected, indicating that anatomical characters in Hydrobia are neither subject to diversifying nor to constrained evolution.

Based on genetic and supportive anatomical data, one of the taxa in the study, Hydrobia sp. A, is considered to be a new species and formally described as Hydrobia djerbaensis n.sp.

Species nova: Hydrobia djerbaensis Wilke, Pfenninger & Davis.

Last instar larvae of two species of the genus Gonempeda Alexander, 1924, the palearctic G. flava (Schummel, 1829) and nearctic G. burra (Alexander, 1924), are described and illustrated for the first time for the genus. The pupa of G. burra is also newly described and compared to the pupa known previously for G. flava. Distinguishing characteristics of the immature stages allowing separation of this genus from other Chioneinae are presented, and the aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats used by the immatures are summarized. Characters of the larvae and pupae indicate that the genus Gonempeda belongs in a clade with Ormosia Rondani, 1856, Rhypholophus Kolenti, 1860 and Scleroprocta Edwards, 1938, but the exact relationships remain unresolved.

A new genus of pimelodid catfishes, Propimelodus, is diagnosed by hypertrophied structures of the palatine and ectopterygoid bones. The type species of Propimelodus is Pimelodus eigenmanni Van der Stigchel (1946). This species belongs to the “Calophysus-Pimelodus clade” and “Pimelodus group” of Lundberg et al. (1991) but within the latter the systematic position of P. eigenmanni remains unresolved.

The name Pimelodus altipinnis Steindachner (1864) is often incorrectly applied to P. eigenmanni. Pimelodus altipinnis belongs in the heptapterid catfish genus Pimelodella. Under earlier editions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Van der Stigchel's P. eigenmanni was treated as unavailable due to primary homonomy with the earlier Pimelodus eigenmanni Boulenger (1891), a species placed in Pimelodella since Eigenmann (1917). However, the 4th edition of the Code directs use of Van der Stigchel's name because the two species originally named Pimelodus eigenmanni were never concurrently considered to be congeners. Based largely on recently collected material from the eastern Amazon and coastal rivers of French Guiana, Van der Stigchel's P. eigenmanni is redescribed and compared to other members of the “Pimelodus group.”

Genus novum: Propimelodus Lundberg & Parisi.

Bibliographic references and information on type specimens of 366 nominal species of Indo-Pacific Muraenidae are presented. Many of the primary type specimens were examined and descriptions of key characters are given. The current taxonomic status of each species is given. Lectotypes are designated for the following species: Muraena ceramensis Bleeker, 1852; Eurymyctera crudelis Kaup, 1856; Muraena gracilis Richardson, 1848; Gymnothorax isingleenoides Bleeker, 1853; Muraena isingteena Richardson, 1845; Muraena lentiginosa Jenyns, 1842; Muraena monostigma Regan 1909; Thyrsoidea multifasciata Kaup, 1856; Muraena richardsonii Bleeker, 1852; and Muraena micropterus Bleeker, 1852.

The lichen herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (PH) is among the oldest in North America. At the center of the collection are the herbaria of the early nineteenth century botanists L.D. von Schweinitz and G.H.E. Muhlenberg and the late nineteenth century lichenologist J.W. Eckfeldt. A catalogue of types has not previously been compiled and a search of the lichen herbarium in preparation for this paper yielded a large number of previously unrecognized types (> 150). At this time, the type collection of lichens at PH contains type material of 258 nominal taxa described by the following authors: E. Acharius, T. Ahti, F. Arnold, O.G. Blomberg, I.M. Brodo, O.V. Derbishire, M.J. Dibben, W.L. Dix, J.W. Eckfeldt, C.F.E. Erichsen, B.E. Fink, E.M. Fries, T.M. Fries, V. Gyelnik, M.E. Hale, A. Halsey, H.E. Hasse, J. Hedrick, A. Hue, J. Hulting, A.H. Magnusson, J. Müller Argoviensis, T. Nuttall, W. Nylander, L.D. von Schweinitz, M. Servit, J. Steiner, E. Stizenberger, E. Tuckerman, E.A. Wainio, C.M. Wetmore, H. Willey, and A. Zahlbruckner.

Wilhelm Bock (1897?-1972) was an engineer by profession who turned to paleontology in the later years of his life and became a research associate in the former Department of Geology and Paleontology of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). In the early 1960s Bock left the Academy and established “The Geological Research Foundation,” apparently at his home. When Bock left the institution he also retained a significant portion of his sizable collection, which contained numerous type and figured specimens. Recently, routine curation of the Paleobotany collection at ANSP has lead to the recovery of 62 specimens figured by Bock, which have been reported as “lost” since his death in 1972. Included in the recovered material are two paratypes of Ginkgoites milfordensis Bock, a taxon that has long been reported as having been based upon the single specimen that was destroyed while on loan in the early 1970s. Also rediscovered were the neotype and isoneotype of Diploporundus rugosus (Wanner ex Ward) designated by Bock in 1960.

In 1868, Edward Drinker Cope incorrectly restored the type specimen of Elasmosaurus platyurus, by placing the skull at the end of the animal's tail. His error haunted him the rest of his career. In examining the scientific literature and popular science literature available to Cope prior to 1868, as well as taking note of the extent of knowledge which I suggest his professional colleagues shared with him concerning plesiosaurs, it seems impossible that he should have incorrectly restored the fossil. I further suggest that he made this error more than once, even after his mistake was pointed out to him.