[Taxacom] ZooBank website

[Peter Oboyski]

I used the codling moth, Cydia pomonella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), as my 
test taxon. I imagine most of you have heard of it. It is a very important 
pest of apples with lots of literature references. The genus has been known 
by several names (Carpocapsa, Laspeyresia, Cydia).

Searching "pomonella" in ZooBank gives virtually all the combinations. I 
even found an incidence of Cydia pomonella in the family Noctuidae, and in 
the order Hymenoptera. Following the Zoological Record link (which gives the 
rest of the citation for which only the title is given in ZooBank) I found 
that all these combinations can be found in the literature. Sometimes 
because they are coded wrong in Zoological Record, but sometimes just by 
association.

Keeping in mind that this is just a "starting point," there is a lot of 
"clean up" work to be done just for this one species. And if this were to 
become an authoritative list, I wouldn't know from the results that were 
returned what name, author, and year I should use.

I tip my hat to the folks who are attempting to fill the need for 
authoritative lists. But I'm not sure that one group can do this. The 
current taxonomy of any group is known best by the people currently working 
on it. Any attempt at creating authoritative lists has to include 
submissions by such people in an "open source" sort of framework.

$0.02,

Pete

-----------------------------------------------------------
Peter T. Oboyski
University of California
ESPM Insect Biology
137 Mulford Hall MC3114
Berkeley CA  94720-3114

510-847-0360 (cell)
510-642-5114 (work)
pt_oboyski at hotmail.com
poboyski at nature.berkeley.edu
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~poboyski/

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