designating a photo as holotype?

[Geoff Read]

> > ... I'm curious as to why Doug Yanega needs
> >to erect this genus, given the circumstances of one inadequate specimen.
> >Doug, convince me ...

> ... We'd know nothing about these flies if people waited until they had
> a series of specimens. .. [et cetera]

> ... All in all, it seemed pretty foolish to me to just ignore it and hope
> for more before doing anything about it. Convinced yet?? ;-)

Thanks for the explanation. It's clearly a defensible stance, but, well
no, I'm not completely won over, partly because it should be possible to
describe the animal & publish the information without formal new names
(ctenostylid sp. of Yanega, 1998 can get a binomen later if necessary),
and partly because subsequent workers, at least in my field (worms),
would not normally be very satisfied with a headless specimen as holotype
of a genus type species. It would have to be a fantastic photo, but of
course insects are naturally photogenic and worms maybe less so. :-)

--
   Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>