Taxacom: demystifying gender agreement ( was Re: Removals ofoffending scientific names)

[Raab-Straube, Eckhard von]

Dear All,

I couldn't agree more with Alberto and Robert and I have but a few remarks to add.

I simply don't understand why some zoologists (all of them from the Anglosphere, it seems to me) complain about the seemingly immense workload connected with gender agreement.

For a working taxonomist in Botany or Mycology, things are not so difficult: if we want to understand the rules of Latin, and I think we should, we consult the aforementioned Stearn's Botanical Latin (there is an exact translation of that work in Chinese language available!). If we don't have the time to do that, we can look up the gender of many names in the examples in Art. 62 of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants at https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iapt-taxon.org%2Fnomen%2Fpages%2Fmain%2Fart_62.html&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Ca0492586a39d4fe4851008db76efa03e%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638234543778162356%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DqGCNpq%2BxuFwMaDhgQZX34Owklzx%2BMTV6yQW8jBRYeA%3D&reserved=0.

If we are still too lazy to do that (it takes only minutes, not months), we just submit our name changes to a good  taxonomic journal without bothering (I wouldn't encourage people to do that, but it is possible), then, usually one or two reviewers, subject or general editors know their business and ask for correction (the manuscript will not be rejected just because of errors in gender agreement).

If all those taxonomists still have the gender agreement wrong, which happens once in a while, the name is indexed in the IPNI (if a vascular plant), and usually knowledgeable people there correct the name in accordance with the rules and make a note why the name has to be corrected.

And even if the entry in IPNI is not correct, which also happens once in a while, there will be sooner or later somebody who becomes aware of that error, writes a short note to IPNI, and the next day the correction will be online, including a short explanation. Example: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipni.org%2Fn%2F77319042-1&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Ca0492586a39d4fe4851008db76efa03e%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638234543778162356%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dbKBZu1cLLJPr4SDuf50rYYFwpzc0spZ0rG0i%2B2mWz0%3D&reserved=0 Gender agreement escaped the attention of authors, reviewers and editors, but the name was corrected only a few days after publication. So the IPNI becomes better every day, and the workload for a non-interested taxonomist is minimal.

This is a straightforward and easy procedure to have correct names, and there is no reason whatsoever not to follow that path in the future.