illustrations as lectotypes

[Joe Laferriere]

The ICBN permits usage of an illustration as type, and many botanists
have taken advantage of this provision to designate illustrations
published in, for example, Botanical Magazine as lectotypes. The
paintings in Bot Mag are generally pretty good, but I have seen rather
pitiful line-drawings in other places designated as lectotypes.
   Question (one for which I can find no guidance in the ICBN): If an
illustration has been selected as lectotype (or, for that matter,
holotype or neotype), what status is accorded to the specimen on which
the drawing was based? Is it an isotype? Suppose one wanted to negate the
lectotypification declaring the illustration as lectotype and replace it
with the specimen, would this be at all possible? I suppose the specimen
could become an epitype without too much difficulty.