[Taxacom] FW: formation of zoological names with Mc, Mac, et

[Richard Pyle]

Not to pick on you, Stephen, but: 

> The only reason to cite the authority/date with the 
> name is as an (imperfect) indication of homonymy and 
> priority. 

Yes, this is "a" reason.  No, it is not the *only* reason.  I much more
often use the author/year information to help me track down the original
publication in which the name was established, than I do for disambiguating
homonyms or assessing priority. You can make all the claims you want about
what the "real" reason is for citing authorships, but that doesn't change
how I most often *use* that information.  And I don't only use it for that
purpose when wearing my taxonomy-nerd hat; I also use it that way when
wearing my database-nerd hat. I agree with Chris: "shouldn't we be compiling
use cases of what they *are* used for?"

Aloha,
Rich