[Taxacom] Alle alle, or Alle alle alle?

[Mark Wilden]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Richard HARDWICK <rch at skynet.be> wrote:
>                                    Bruxelles, le 15-08-2012
>         "Accipiter   gentilis gentilis"
>         "Accipiter   nisus nisus"
>         "Acrocephalus   arundinaceus arundinaceus"
>
>     Question - to be taxonomically correct, in a text about Belgian birds,
>     ought I to be quoting the binomial  (as per the first list); or the
>      trinomial name (as per the second list)?

The binomial should be used, in my opinion. The only time the
nominotypical trinomial should be used is if there also exists a
different trinomial for a different subspecies.

By the Principle of Cooordination (ICZN 46), creating "Accipter
gentilis" creates "Accipter gentilis gentilis" (and vice versa) with
the same name-bearing type. Hence every species has at least one
subspecies. But when when there's only this one "formal" subspecies,
it serves no purpose to indicate it. Or so it seems to me.

///ark

Mark Wilden
Web Applications Developer
California Academy of Sciences
www.antcat.org