"arcane" rules/was gender of -opsis

[Markku Savela]

> >
> > >the original literature is a basic tool of the trade.
> >
> >No, the basic tool of the trade is specimens, they are the only things that
> >let us discover "truth".  Publications are little more than one person's
> >opinion of that "truth".  The true foundation of nomenclature is type
> >specimens, nothing more.

In my amateur opinion

  the original described name for the taxon is the name of the type
  specimen.

This is objective, mathematical. There is no room for interpretation.

A genus name is just an indirect reference to the type specimen of
the type species of the genus :-)

Interpretation, subjective decisions come when one is to decide which
other specimens belong to same taxon.