[Taxacom] Homonymous synonyms / cosmic order

[Neal Evenhuis]

Technically (= as the ICZN Code is currently written), all instances of a new proposal of a name, whether it is the same as a previous proposal or not, is to be treated as independent of any other proposal. This, of course tends to clutter up synonymy lists since is was not uncommon in older works for a name to be published more than once by the same author (especially in cases where a separately printed edition would come out in advance of a journal version, say). So workers have tended to ignore the technicality and only list the earliest proposal of a name, which only makes sense if the type species for the name is the same. However, this is not always the case.

A situation of same names by the same author in different publications I worked on was taken to a complicated extreme. Italian dipterist Mario Bezzi, in the 1920s, received parcels of specimens of African bee flies from 5 different collections in which he felt (or was) obligated to write reports for each as a separate paper. All of these papers were written and submitted for publication at around the same time, not knowing and having no control as to which paper would appear first or in which order. But the complicating factor is, although in some cases Bezzi described the same species with the same name, he used different type specimens for those names since each report dealt only with the specimens from that collection! Most of the time there was only one name in all 5 papers, but in some cases there are multiple publications with the same name, but based on different type species.

I would say in those cases, the secondary and tertiary proposals would definitely need to be listed in a synonymy list since the type specimens were different. But for secondary descriptions labeled as new but based on exactly the same type specimen, I think the Code could be reworded to reflect a more pragmatic solution than to have to list each and every one as a separate proposal of a new species name.

How do the botanists deal with this? It surely is not a zoological phenomenon.

-Neal

On 6/4/12 11:21 AM, "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz<mailto:stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>> scribbled the following tidbit:

actually, Francisco still has a point:
an old name can be new, even if it wasn't originally flagged as new. Can a name that is flagged as new fail to be new? That is an awkward question which the zoological Code doesn't satisfactorily address ...

Stephen


________________________________
From: Richard Petit <r.e.petit at att.net<mailto:r.e.petit at att.net>>
To: Francisco Welter-Schultes <fwelter at gwdg.de<mailto:fwelter at gwdg.de>>
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, 5 June 2012 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Homonymous synonyms / cosmic order

Dear Francisco:

It would be nice if you could, every so often, credit others with some small
degree of perspicacity.

When I listed the three names in my posting I should have included the "n.
sp." that the respective authors each placed after their introductions. I
failed to realize that I would possibly be accused of not being able to
recognize the introduction of a new name. That they each clearly intended to
introduce a new name is enough. It is not necessary to try to "get into the
minds" of the authors to try to guess what they knew or did not know.

As for the other part of your message, I disagree about the multiple
introductions of names based on non-binominal usage but will not attempt to
open a discussion on that subject.

Regards,

dick p.


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