Taxacom: [iczn-list] Minimalist revision of Mesochorus

[Nick Grishin]

> Yes, there must be a few cases like that, but the fewer cases the 
> better.

Yes, quite a few. Another recent one:
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzookeys.pensoft.net%2Farticle%2F3169%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C11f158a75fd443227fb608dbaa8ac05a%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638291285130419768%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2szRwRgU628pFqVY85ej2LAY8Jg9sFLLSEaK7N65LIc%3D&reserved=0
Noticed first by the difference in its eye color (frequently fades in 
pinned specimens). Like H. intricata, rather distantly related to a 
species it was clubbed with before.

Butterflies in the US (~850 species) may be one of the best-studied 
groups. For better or for worse, we don't control these case, people just 
add documentation to the literature about what happens in Nature without 
worrying about what was happending in literature before these people 
started documenting Nature.


> One question: In the abstract of your paper, you say "It secures the 
> universally accepted traditional usage of this name."I don't understand! 
> If the species name was previously used for mixed species, how does 
> neotype designation "secure the universally accepted traditional usage 
> of this name"?

Traditionally, in hundreds of publicatons, the name *sosybius* proposed 
for a species from unstated locality was universally applied to a 
"species" from the eastern USA that looks similar to the illustration of a 
type, but it could have been a South American species, or a mixed type 
series. After the neotype designation, the name *sosybius* still applies 
to the species from the eastern US (and not, suddenly, from South 
America). I.e., prevailing usage was conserved. Nothing more than that.

Yes, there are at east two similar-looking species in the eastern US, and 
the neotype was chosen to pick the one that matches the illustration of 
the lectotype better. Incidentally, it turned out to be a more common and 
more widespread species, with specimens in ancient collections, so maybe 
it was indeed the "correct" species (conspecific with the lectotype). n