Posted by Paul Beuk on 19-08-2008 23:41
#1
For a course at the university here we have a small idea brewing in the pot. The course deals with taxonomy and the 'chemical' part of it: DNA sequencing and analysis.
I have no idea whether
Villa has been subject of a DNA study yet, but the morphologically complex genus
Villa might be a suitable candidate to combine morphological and chemical data. It is a short students course but if it is promissing it might evolve in a bigger study.
The question is whether
Villa material is available for study, preferably in alcohol from (Northwestern) Europe. In an ideal situation there would be specimens 'clearly belonging' to one of the known species and specimens of uncertain affinity.
If enough material is available (and I am not talking about hundreds, maybe dozens from different locations) the study might go ahead and we might learn a little more about this genus.