nomenclature

[Anita Cholewa]

As Jim Beach says, there at times needs to be some
coordination of names on a practical level.  And I have
no problem with the underlying philosophy behind the
ITIS proposal.  Where I see the problem is how the
"rank-and-file" apply the coordiated classification.
Based on past experience, if the ITIS proposal goes ahead
then there needs to be certain guidelines that must be
imposed.  The government users must be made to realize
at least two things:  1. the "new" nomenclature is only
an attempt to coordinate the names and NOT a final word
on classification/nomenclature;  2. the government is NOT
the expert on classification/nomenclature/systematics and if a
taxonomist disagrees with the ITIS name, the reasons for the
disagreement should be discussed; the taxonomist should
not just be blown off by the worker (after having published in
a peer reviewed journal a new species, I was told by a
non-expert government employee that it couldn't be so).

What I fear is that we are sliding back into a doctrice of
signatures type arrangement.  If the government says so it
must be correct--there is no allowance for variability, no
allowance for environmental plasticity (what is that I was
once asked by a resource manager), no allowance for the
possiblity that new species are still evolving.  If I can
be assured such things will not happen, I would jump on the
ITIS bandwagon in a flash.

Anita F. Cholewa

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