Proper science is hard work:
A Wasp Opus 30 Years in the Making
Future entomologists working on the Australian wasp genus Sericophorus will have a much easier time identifying species, thanks to a 234-page paper by curator Wojciech Pulawski. A Danish scientist named Ole Lomholdt actually initiated this massive study in the early 1980s. However, following his untimely death in 1999, Pulawski picked up the mantle and finished this 30-year labor of love. Pulawski conducted additional field work in Australia, studied more than 1,000 specimens, described 30 species unknown to Lomholdt, generated photographs, added distribution maps, and analyzed the wasps’ evolutionary relationships. The result is the most comprehensive overview of Sericophorus ever published, including a key to 100 species.