Van Wallach

Van Stanley Bartholomew Wallach (born 1947) is an American herpetologist.

For many years Wallach worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He retired from the museum in 2012, but he continues his current study of Mexican thread snakes (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae: Epictia).

In the 2000s he became embroiled in a dispute with Raymond Hoser, a self-published Australian herpetologist, over proper nomenclaturial acts. Hoser charged Wallach with attempting nomenclaturial acts of species-naming after Hoser had already named the species. Wallach's coauthors pointed out that Hoser had not complied with the provisions of the ICZN Code. The debate became quite heated with Hoser charging Wallach with committing "scientific fraud", while nine prominent biologists published a paper in which they, not so indirectly, called Hoser a "taxonomic vandal". The biologists suggested that the herpetofaunal taxa published on or after 1 January 2000 that can be objectively classed as unscientific, non-peer reviewed, misguided in intent or presentation, fraudulent, or lacking evidence should not be used and offered a list of recommended substitutions, as a temporary stop-gap until the ICZN has developed a suitable response to actions of taxonomic vandals. They went on to list over 200 taxonomic names that had been offered by Hoser, and a handful of names from Richard Wells, a self-published Australian reptile zoologist.

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