[Taxacom] Author inclusion or non-inclusion with species names

[Tony.Rees at csiro.au]

Dear all,

Just picking up on this element of a thread as of a week ago (a week being a long time on Taxacom!!) - see appended email extracts for orientation...

I would take issue with the comments below regarding the non-desirability of species author names in "texts aimed at non taxonomists" for a couple of reasons - first, texts or websites often have a range of potential users, so "taxonomists" may end up consulting "non taxonomic" resources and vice versa, and second, inclusion of author names is often a clue that taxa which are classified in different ways on different lists may in fact be the same apart from a genus transfer. E.g. if you see "Onykia loennbergii Ishikawa and Wakiya, 1914" on the Tree of Life site (which you could arguably claim is aimed at non-taxonomists), http://www.tolweb.org/Onykia_loennbergii , there is an improved chance that the keen user may spot that this is at least possibly the same as "Moroteuthis loennbergii Ishikawa and Wakiya, 1914" elsewhere, e.g. SeaLifebase (http://www.sealifebase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=57316), and so on, than if the authority were omitted in both cases.

A converse aspect is that of spotting potential duplicates on lists, e.g. in WoRMS a day or so back I found the following name pairs, all currently listed as valid, in Ascidiacea:

Didemnum patalum (Herdman, 1899)
Didemnum patulum (Herdman, 1899)
Didemnum peyreffitense Brément, 1913
Didemnum peyrefittense Brement, 1913
Didemnum spongioide Sluiter, 1909
Didemnum spongoides Sluiter, 1909
Polysyncraton longitubis Kott, 2004
Polysyncraton longtubis Kott, 2004
Polysyncraton multiforme Kott, 2001
Polysyncraton multiformis Kott, 2001
Polysyncraton multipapilla Monniot, 1993
Polysyncraton multipapillae Monniot, 1993
Polysyncraton poro Monniot & Monniot, 1987
Polysyncraton porou Monniot & Monniot, 1987
Didemnum mortenseni Michaelsen, 1924 
Polysyncraton mortensi (Michaelsen, 1924)

Now at some point, hopefully, thes will be cleaned up, but at least inclusion of the authority provides some guidance to the user (taxonomist or non-taxonomist) as to what might be going on here (i.e. more names than actual taxa). Of course if the authority is different as well, one would draw a different conclusion.

Regards - Tony



-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of dipteryx at freeler.nl
Sent: Friday, 25 September 2009 5:53 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] globalnames?

This rather speaks of a database mentality? "In texts aimed
at non taxonomists (field guides, red data lists, quarantine
lists etc)" these "potentially confusing homonyms", if any 
exist at all, will be so few as not being worth listing 
(again, that is the whole purpose of nomenclature). They will 
be topic-related, also.

Paul

Van: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu namens David Remsen (GBIF)
Verzonden: do 24-9-2009 15:51
 
> Mario,

> I agree.  Just point me to the list of potentially confusing
> homonyms and I will pass the word.

On Sep 22, 2009, at 3:06 PM, Mario Blanco wrote:

>> For texts aimed exclusively at non taxonomists, yes, it is probably  
>> best to completely omit author citations, except in cases where 
>> there are potentially confusing homonyms.
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> From:     Paul Kirk <p.kirk at cabi.org>
>>
>>> In texts aimed at non taxonomists (field guides, red data lists,
>>> quarantine lists etc) what would the inclusion of unabbreviated
>>> author citation add to the understanding of the associated - 
>>> usually taxon, not name - data by said non taxonomists? My opinion
>>> is that nothing of substance is added by such inclusions and thus 
>>> they are best omitted.

_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here