[Taxacom] Article 16.2 of the ICZN

[Robin Leech]

George Ball, when he taught us courses in Insect Taxonomy, used to
teach us how to work our way into and through the ICZN (1964 issue),
and give us taxonomic problems - to which he knew the answers - to
solve.  I seem to recall a few cases where we were given published
accounts and asked if the Code had been followed correctly.

There was a bunch of us over the years: Don Whitehead,
Rick Freitag, Terry Erwin, Ron Madge, Tony Adisoemarto Fred
McDonald to name but a few - who had to stay the course.

Thus, when some of the taxonomic discussion comes up and requires
knowledge of the ICZB - and to a lesser degree the ICBN, it is old hat
to us.

There is no shortcut to sitting down with a problem and working it out
with the Code in hand.  It helps a lot if you have someone, a mentor,
who really knows his/her way through the Code.  Can save a lot of time.
Also, go to the literature and follow through on a few cases where there
have been a number of new specific names, generic shifts, etc..  It can be
very useful.
Robin Leech

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mivie at montana.edu>
To: "Stephen Thorpe" <s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz>
Cc: "'TAXACOM'" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Article 16.2 of the ICZN


> The really frustrating thing is that doing it right the first time is
> actually pretty easy, it is cleaning up afterward that is so much work.
>
> As for Bob's comment, the answer is always education.  I require that each
> thesis project in systematics include a thorny nomenclatural issue.  By
> the time the student is finished, they are adamant about following the
> code because they have been the victim of those who did not.
>
> Do most of you (in the Professorate) include a section on using
> nomenclature and the code in identification courses?  Perhaps a series of
> pre-prepared exercises with example literature and questions, referenced
> to the Codes, could be used for student papers. Then an example paper
> solving the problem could be provided as a follow-up.  If a small set of
> these was made available to teaching faculty, maybe we could  have an
> impact on education regarding the importance of the issue.  I really think
> that almost everyone wants to do it correctly, usually they just don't
> know how and don't take the time to learn. OK, some are just perpetual
> screwups who don't care, but those are never going to be fixed.
>
>
> Mike Ivie
>
> I do this in Biosystematics, but not in insect id.
>> Clearly, the Code is there for a purpose - to make sure that 
>> communication
>> about taxa is clear and unambiguous. Equally clearly, this cannot be done
>> without fairly high levels of "legalism" (="pedantry"), just as you can't
>> do bioinformatics without paying attention to "minutiae". Unfortunately,
>> some taxonomists have an inflated opinion of the "science" of what they
>> are doing, and too little regard for the effective communication of that
>> science to a broad range of people...
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>> [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Pyle
>> [deepreef at bishopmuseum.org]
>> Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 8:11 a.m.
>> To: 'TAXACOM'
>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Article 16.2 of the ICZN
>>
>>> The commissioners need to keep this in
>>> mind when they have the urge to increase legalism.
>>
>> To my knowledge (I cannot say for certain), it is the desire of every
>> Commissioner to *reduce* leaglism in the future version of the Code.
>>
>> Aloha,
>> Rich
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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