[Taxacom] endings in -fer and -ger

[Laurent Raty]

Christine Barker wrote:
> Epithets ending in -ferus and -gerus should mostly, if not all, be
> corrected to end with -fer and -ger.  The former endings are cases of
> "an improper Latin termination" (Art. 32.7) and are correctable
> orthographical errors (Art. 60.1), whatever the category of the name.


I'm not familiar enough with the ICBN to be sure what it considers 
'improper' Latin. In Latin, however, the rule in question is not without 
exceptions. They are certainly few - but, still:
   deiferus
   infructiferus
   morbiferus
   morigerus
   mortiferus
   pestiferus
...all appear (at least) as possible spellings in Lewis & Short's 'Latin 
Dictionary'.

Greetings,
Laurent -