When (animal) type genus is a subgenus

[Barry M. OConnor]

At 12:00 AM -0400 4/26/01, Ron Gatrelle wrote:
>All,
>    All valid and available names are "always" affixed to an individual
>specimen - the name bearing type....

Actually, the ICZN is merely a law book dealing with names, not organisms.
Ron is correct in that the code recognizes names in 3 groups, species,
genus and family.  Within each group, individual "ranks" are treated the
same (e.g. Article 43, Principle of Coordination, states that names of
"genus" and "subgenus" rank are equivalent in terms of the provisions of
the code), but there are different rules for the different groups, and at
least in the ICZN, there are no rules for categories ranked above the
family group.  Names and their types (specimen for species-group, species
for genus-group,and genus for family-group) don't move out of their groups,
so the specimen can only ever be a type for a name in the species group.

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So many mites, so little time!
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Barry M. OConnor
Professor & Curator             phone: (734) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (734) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA