Protolog is fine for Zoology, too

[christian thompson]

Dear Chris,

Do me a favour will you and put this on TAXACOM.  The term "protologue"
was
invented for botanical use by A. J. Willmott (1888-1950)  a botanist
working
at the Natural History Museum in London in the early part of last century
(pers comm from the late Wm T. Stearn - see the footnote by Stearn in the
1st volume of the Ray Facsimile of "Species Plantarum" (1957), p. 126.
The
use of the term is standard practice in Botany. Willmott defined
protologue
as "first discourse" to cover all the materials in the first account of a
species - names, description, distribution, ecology etc.  See for example
the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature - or simply type into the
www - there are hundreds of examples.

Chris Humphries
The Natural History Museum
London