Hi, biologists value taxonomic stability. Therefore unnecessary taxonomic changes have always met with a high degree of resistance. Such resistance is not limited to papers published in so-called amateur journals. Recent papers by Burbrink to split Elaphe obsoleta and Elaphe guttata have not been well receieved, even by those who otherwise support the evolutionary species concept, which is what Burbrink is using to split these species. Similarly, although Frost and Etheridge are splitting Iguanidae on the basis of cladistic methodology, not all cladists agree with their proposal. Therefore almost any sort of taxonomic proposal will be greeted with lots of skepticism. That said, I do believe that the proposals should be evaluated on a case by case basis, and that they be accepted or rejected on the basis of the strength of the scientific evidence, not on which particular venue the authors choose to publish the proposals.

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