[Taxacom] "sp. nr." in name

[John Grehan]

I'll also be interested in opinion about that. I recently published a
description of a species that I could not determine with certainty using
the form "Endoclita nr. malabaricus". The 'sp' could be seen as redundant.
Never occurred to me.

John Grehan

On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 4:01 PM, Guanyang Zhang <gyz151 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I've recently come across "sp. nr." in names.  For example, Geolaelaps sp.
> nr. aculeifer (Canestrini) (Acari: Laelapidae) (Source
> <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-entomologist/article/
> biological-control-of-fungus-gnats-bradysia-spp-diptera-
> sciaridae-and-western-flower-thrips-frankliniella-occidentals-pergande-
> thysanoptera-thripidae-in-greenhouses-using-a-soil-
> dwelling-predatory-mite-geolaelaps-sp-nr-aculeifer-
> canestrini-acari-laelapidae1/CE688E27B47A3747F1A2328A3984F823>
> )
>
> This appears to be uncommon. In nearly all insect determination labels I've
> seen, if the identifier isn't sure about the identification, either nr. or
> cf. could be used, but without sp., which seems redundant. A colleague of
> mine argues that "sp." is needed to make the name binomial. Not sure if I
> see the point of doing that for species with doubtful identification. Any
> thoughts? Thanks.
>
> Best,
> Guanyang
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