1). Johan Christian Fabricius

2). David Sharp

3). Carl Linnaeus

4). George Charles Champion

5). Carl Henry Boheman

It is good, but only David Sharp is in the actual top 5, in position #2 with 6639 taxa.

1) C. Linnaeus

2) D. Sharp

3) J.C. Fabricius

4) G.J. Arrow

5) C.O. Waterhouse

Linnaeus #63 with 944 taxa

David Sharp #2 with 6639 taxa

J.C. Fabricius #14 with 3099 taxa

G.J. Arrow #27 with 1901 taxa

C.O. Waterhouse is still problematic but is about 1000 taxa (still some tangling with the other Waterhouses)

A.R. Wallace one of them

Happy New Year!

... and the solution is?

Here is the Completed List of authors and how many taxa there are in the NHM collection that they described

#1 - 6697 Mr George Charles Champion

#2 - 6639 Dr David Sharp

#3 - 5065 Mr Martin Jacoby

#4 - 4820 Francis P. Pascoe

#5 - 4624 Dr Malcolm Cameron

#6 - 4525 Thomas Broun

#7 - 3718 Henry Walter Bates

#8 - 3692 Carl H. Boheman

#9 - 3592 Max Bernhauer

#10 - 3583 Dr Roberto Pace

#11 - 3573 Léon Fairmaire

#12 - 3265 Maurice Pic

#13 - 3151 Reverend Thomas Blackburn

#14 - 3099 Johann Christian Fabricius

#15 - 3047 John Lawrence LeConte

#16 - 2952 Edmund Reitter

#17 - 2920 Sir Guy Anstruther Knox Marshall

#18 - 2475 Joseph Sugar Baly

#19 - 2377 Dr. Walter Wittmer

#20 - 2283 Etienne de/ Stephan von Breuning

A truly fascinating bit of taxonomic beetle trivia, Maxwell I commend you for compiling this list. All the best in 2018!

because it's London collection, rather than Paris, Pic is not as high scoring as one might expect.