[Taxacom] type collections

[Stephen Thorpe]

There is always someone who misunderstands this! The type can still be a (lost) specimen, known via a photograph. "I hereby designate the holotype to be the specimen shown in the following photograph ..."

Stephen

 
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 5/1/16, Norbert Holstein <holstein at lrz.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] type collections
 To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
 Cc: "Rick McNeill" <juniper.botany at gmail.com>
 Received: Tuesday, 5 January, 2016, 12:02 PM
 
 Since 1 Jan 2007, the
 type of a new taxon must be a specimen (Art. 40.4; 
 except for the cases in Art. 40.5 but those are
 not important here).
 The holotype must be
 chosen from your second series, it cannot be a 
 photograph. For the definition of your new
 taxon only the holotype is of 
 importance.
 What you write in the diagnosis is secondary and basically
 
 only exists to illustrate the idea the
 author has in mind why this taxon 
 is new.
 Technically, the diagnosis does not even need to correspond
 to 
 the cited material, although this would
 be rather bad style. By adding 
 the
 photographs though, your point might be sufficiently clear
 enough to 
 convince other botanists to
 accept your taxon.
 
 If no
 crucially necessary character for identification is shown in
 your 
 type material, you can either postpone
 the publication of your taxon (in 
 my
 opinion the best way), or you publish now and create an
 epitype when 
 the material becomes
 available. However, not having the important 
 characters in the type material but only as
 photographs is something 
 some editors and
 reviewers might find hard to accept.
 
 Regards,
 Norbert
 
 
 >
 Depending on the details of the Botanical Code (of which I
 know
 > nothing), you might be able to
 designate as holotype a lost specimen,
 >
 by way of the photo. That might be preferable to having to
 make do
 > with a diagnostically useless
 holotype (unless the genetic sequence is
 > diagnostic and can be extracted from the
 suboptimal specimen).
 > 
 > Cheers, Stephen
 > 
 >
 --------------------------------------------
 > On Tue, 5/1/16, Rick McNeill <juniper.botany at gmail.com>
 wrote:
 > 
 >  Subject:
 [Taxacom] type collections
 >  To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
 >  Received: Tuesday, 5 January, 2016, 8:02
 AM
 > 
 >  I have a
 question about types.
 > 
 >  I have taxon on which I am working.  It
 is known from
 >  one location and the
 >  highest number of plants found at any
 time was around 50.
 > 
 >  I took high resolution images of the
 plants and collected 10
 >  at the end
 of
 >  the season. I wrote a description
 from those plants and
 >  images.  I
 then
 >  attempted to send the collection
 to another researcher and
 >  it was
 lost.  I
 >  went back the next year and
 made another collection, but
 >  none of
 the plants
 >  were in fruit or flower. 
 The description was not
 >  written or
 expanded from
 >  these plants because
 they did not have all of the
 > 
 characters.
 > 
 > 
 Should the second collection be designated as a neotype or
 a
 >  holotype?
 > 
 Should the images be included as part of the type?
 > 
 >  rick
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 _____________________
 >  Richard
 McNeill
 >  Feral Botanist
 >  702-415-5149
 >  juniper.botany at gmail.com
 >  Botany photos
 >  
 > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/82244653@N08/collections/72157640888456005/>
 >  Adventure photos
 > 
 
 > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/82244653@N08/collections/72157640888592535/>
 > 
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 searched at:
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 > 
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 years of Taxacom in 2015.
 >
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 Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
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 > The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be
 searched at: 
 > http://taxacom.markmail.org
 > 
 > Celebrating 28 years
 of Taxacom in 2015.
 
 ---
 Dr. rer. nat. Norbert Holstein
 Universität Bonn
 Nees-Institut
 f. Biodversität d. Pflanzen
 Meckenheimer
 Allee 170
 53115 Bonn
 Germany
 Phone:
 +49-228-73-2123
 http://www.nees.uni-bonn.de/staff/pages/Dr.%20Norbert%20Holstein
 ---
 ex
 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München & Botanische
 Staatssammlung 
 München
 _______________________________________________
 Taxacom Mailing List
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 The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be
 searched at: http://taxacom.markmail.org
 
 Celebrating 28 years of
 Taxacom in 2015.