Confusing names (2)

[John McNeill]

Karen Wilson (10 November 4:14 am GMT) has mentioned a list of trigeneric 
homonyms that I made public (based on date provided by Paul Kirk, IMI) in 
1996.  I DO have the relevant material in electronic form so will provide 
it now.

First of all I append the portion of the paper "Key Issues ... " addressing
 inter-Code homonymy to which I referred a few days ago.  I will then attach 
the "Table 2" (as an MSWord file) referred to in the appended text.  The
seven trigeneric homonyms represent the final mailing (as an attachment).

Note that the original Taxacom archive url's are given, not the crrent ones.

John McNeill
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      John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum,
      Honorary Associate, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
      Mailing address: Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR,=20
          Scotland, U.K.
      Telephone: +44-162-088-0651;  fax: +44-162-088-0342
      e-mail will continue as: johnm at rom.on.ca 
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>From "Key Issues... ":

Most obviously, the independence of the nomenclature determined by each of the Codes can and does lead to extensive homonymy, that is, the occurrence of names spelled in exactly the same way for organisms governed by different Codes.  The one limitation on independency rests with the Bacteriological Code, which excludes independency of nomenclature between it and the names of "algae and fungi" and "protozoa" (Prin. 2).  In 
consequence, generic names such as Microcyclus and Pirella, later homonyms of fungal generic names governed by the ICBN, have been replaced by names (Ancylobacter and Pirellula) that would not otherwise have precedence.

Table 2 provides a summary of the extent of generic homonymy as determined on the basis of the electronic databases of genera of plants, animals and bacteria.  From this, it can be seen that although nearly 9,000 botanical generic names are to be found as genera in the Zoological Record database (13.6% of the total number of botanical genera), only 3,554 of these appear to be in current use in botany (only some 5%).  Many well-known botanical and zoological genera are known to be homonymous with names governed by the other Code; some examples of vascular plant genera include Arenaria L. (1753) (sandwort, Caryophyllaceae) and Arenaria Brisson (1760) (turnstone, Aves: Scolopacidae), Ficus L. (1753) (fig, Moraceae) and Ficus Bolten (1798) (Mollusca), Oenanthe L. (1753) (evening primrose, Onagraceae), and Oenanthe Pallas (1771) (wheatear, Aves: Muscicapidae), Pieris D. Don (1834) (Ericaceae) and Pieris Schrank (1801) (cabbage white butterfly, Lepidoptera: Pieridae),  Paul Dessart, Bruxelles (dessart at D5100.kbinirsnb.be) (pers. comm.), as part of an ongoing comparison of the botanical and zoological Codes, has accumulated a list of more than 140 homonymous pairs of generic names in current use (see archives of TAXACOM at csma.Berkeley.edu for September 1996 at http//www.keil.ukans.edu/archive/taxacom.html), but the overall extent of potential confusion in terms of the size of the genera involved and the presence or absence of homonyms at the species level remains to be examined in detail.

The only example currently known of homonymy between Codes at the species level is of the vascular plant Pieris japonica (Thunb.) G. Don (1834)
(Ericaceae) and the butterfly, Pieris napi subsp. japonica Shirozu (1952) Lepidoptera: Pieridae), which are homonymous because of the co-ordinate 
status provision of the ICZN, by which the publication of the epithet aponica at subspecific level implies the co-ordinate publication of Pieris japonica Shirozu. (Cf. Mary E. Petersen (mepetersen at zmuc.ku.dk) in the September 1996 archives of the TAXACOM Listserver (cf. http//www.keil.ukans.edu/archive/taxacom.html).  The issue of the overall extent of homonymy between Codes clearly needs to be an
important priority for the International Committee on Bionomenclature.


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John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum;
Honorary Associate ,Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Mailing address:
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, Scotland, U.K.
Telephone: +44-162-088-0651;  fax: +44-162-088-0342
e-mail continues as:  johnm at rom.on.ca
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