[Taxacom] Does the species name have to change when it moves genus?

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

From: "Bob Mesibov" <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:04 AM

> Rod Page wrote, and I wonder if he regretted it after hitting the Send 
> button:
>
> "Just give me a name and stop mucking around with it."
>
> This is the view from outside taxonomy of what taxonomists do.

***
Yes, this is how the world at large looks at it. Fortunately we have 
biodiversity informaticians to explain to the world that it does not work 
this way :)

As Paul Kirk pointed out, there is not just the issue of 
one-taxon-many-names but also that of one-name-many-taxa 
(circumscriptions), which is at least as important. However, both these 
issues are (or should be) less of a problem now than ever before, as 
now we have computers which are very suitable to map out the 
relations between names and taxa. Again, the prime job of
biodiversity informations is to combat the idea that there necessarily 
is a one-to-one relationship between names and taxa.

Paul