Vijftig delen van Basteria, 1936-1986

Fifty volumes of Basteria, 1936-1986 A survey of the first fifty volumes of Basteria, the journal of the Nederlandse Malacologische Vereniging, has revealed the following. In 51 years Basteria was edited by only six persons, of which Mrs. Dr. W.S.S. van Benthem Jutting served longest (1948-1977). The journal has grown from a minimum of 53 to 220 pp. per volume (tables 1-2, fig. 1), settling for at least 160 pp. per volume in recent years. Vols. 1-50 comprise 5233 pp. (an average of 105 pp. per volume), to which should be added two supplements (1959, 1984) totalling 311 pp. Table 3 and fig. 2 show that English has gradually displaced Dutch as a medium of publication. A total of 63 foreign authors and co-authors contributed 143 papers in 50 volumes, amounting to 22% of the total number of papers. As regards articles (table 4, fig. 3), Basteria appears to be characterized by short papers (average of 8.1 pp.); only four papers have ever covered 50 pp. or more, which is entirely due to financial restrictions. New taxa have only been published in limited numbers (table 5, fig. 4); the total is 180, but the trend shown is that recently increasing numbers are described. Table 6 and fig. 5 indicate trends connected with the geographical origin of the molluscs treated in Basteria. Apparently Basteria is of great importance for local faunistic studies, and of growing importance for Europe outside The Netherlands. The final survey (table 7, fig. 6) shows that half of the papers concern marine molluscs, about one third terrestrial snails, and approximately one sixth freshwater molluscs; these Figures more or less reflect the diversity and importance of the various groups. Complete indices have appeared from time to time, the last one in vol. 36 (1972); this was followed by another index solely to the level of genera/subgenera (vol. 40, 1976), after which indices were discontinued for Financial reasons. Nowadays only lists of new taxa and of contributing authors are published every few years.