Sir

Your Editorial “Ignorance is not bliss” (Nature 430, 385; 200410.1038/430385a) notes that Charles Godfray “argues that taxonomy must emerge from museums to become a web-based information science”. It continues: “Some initiatives of this ilk are under way, but the call has been short-sightedly rejected by much of the taxonomic community, notably the Linnean Society of London.”

I was president of the Linnean Society from 2000 to 2003. During this period the society submitted written evidence to the Inquiry into Systematic Biology and Biodiversity held by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. This evidence was published in What on Earth? The Threat to the Science Underpinning Conservation: Evidence (HL paper 118 (ii); 2002).

On pages 124–125, the following statement occurs as part of the Linnean Society's evidence (all of which was formally approved by its council): “Professor Charles Godfray FRS ... argues powerfully and persuasively for a major sea-change in taxonomy whereby the systematics of all groups of organisms would become a single web-based resource .... His proposal would have the particular advantage that at last, taxonomic information would become easily available .... This will be essential if real and effective progress is to be made in the conservation of biodiversity in the UK.”

The Linnean Society therefore does not reject but supports the initiatives that have been proposed by Charles Godfray.