[Taxacom] [iczn-list] GENERAL CALL TO BATTLE

[John Grehan]

Hi Carlos,

I can sympathise with your plight and it would evidently be a case of some
very bad taxonomy, although not the first time that species have been named
more than once by the same person. If you can get a signed statement from
the persons involved stating that they did this with the intention of
causing destruction of damage to the taxonomy then I would be fine with the
vandalism adjective. If you were to characterize the actual taxonomic
choices by some pejorative adjective that would be OK with me since it is
an assessment of actual results. e.g. if you called a particular
taxonomy 'twaddle' (to use a phrase of recent notoriety) because of the
situation you describe that would not be appropriate since it is about the
body of work itself and based on an evidence based argument and not about
the author's themselves.

I plan to name some new species of moth from NG, breaking up one current
widespread species name. But this will be based on limited material and
sometimes only one sex. It might create a mess in the future if it turns
out not to be representative of the biological structure. But it is not my
intention to cause any such outcome and so hopefully in that situation I
would not be described as a taxonomic vandal. I'm not waiting for adequate
material as that will not materialize in my lifetime.

Cheers, John