Scientists naming species only for them to die

There are now more taxonomists than ever before, that’s people who name animals new to science (calling your dog "rover" doesn’t count - ed) and as such they are discovering and naming species faster than ever.  This has led to the situation in which they are naming species only for the species to then become extinct.
 
"It’s quite annoying really" said Dr Smith our taxonomist in the field. "There you are in an Amazonian swamp, up to your nostrils in poisonous leeches when you finally find a new sort of beetle.  You give it a name and to thank you, the blighter goes and pops its clogs, taking its entire species with it, it’s all rather irritating". 

Taxonomy, not to be confused with the fine art that is taxidermy.

It all started as a bet with eminent scientician Lord Daftwager estimating there to be hundreds of millions of species in the world and claiming it to be impossible to name them all before they popped their clogs.  Dr Costello of the University of Auckland has taken up the wager estimating there to be only 2-8 million, of which 1.5 have been named, still some way to go then.  "With a modest increase in effort" he claims, "most species could be discovered".  Bold claims and only time will tell if he will be right or loose to lord Daftwager and have to rip up his ‘taxonomist of the year’ certificate whilst wearing a dress.
 
There are critics to this bold wager and Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, argues it is "more important to fight extinction than to catalogue species".
 
Taxonomy will always have a place though, as it’s always nice to know exactly which variety of poisonous leech has bitten you when you collapse in an Amazonian hospital.