When (animal) type genus is a subgenus

[Barry Roth]

Thank you, Ken.  Article 40 of the new Code deals with the other situation you mention and oddly, perhaps, provides that "when the name of a type genus of a nominal family-group taxon is considered to be a junior synonym of the name of another nominal genus [i.e., when it is not a valid name], the family-group name is not to be replaced on that account alone."

So perhaps we could make the argument that if JUNIOR SYNONYMY of a genus name is not enough to sink a family-group name based on it, then subgeneric ranking probably is not sufficient, either.  The wisdom of this, I suppose, is that genus-level taxonomy (which is likely to be relatively fluid over time) does not have a continual, cascading effect on nomenclature at the family level.

Still, I wonder whether there isn't a more directly pertinent article or section somewhere in the Code.

Barry



  Ken Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com> wrote:

Barry,
Whether the generic name involved is recognized as a full genus or
subgenus (of another genus) is a matter of taxonomic opinion. Therefore, I
see no reason that any particular classification regarding it as a subgenus
(as opposed to a full genus) as being relevant to the validity of the Family
name based upon it. If the newest ICZN Code has any provisions that would
say anything different, I would be very surprised. If the generic name in
question was invalid, then that would be a whole different matter.


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