Taxacom: Minimalist revision of Mesochorus Gravenhorst, 1829

[Marco Uliana]

Thanks Richard.

About the second point you raised ("code warriors"), I think ICZN should be
considered just as a working tool that taxonomists are required to apply.
Application of rules should not be dependent on how much addressees are
aware of, willing to cope with, or on what one assumes to be correct "by
default".

Getting back to the specific case, I find unquestionable that each name was
proposed conditionally, since doubt on potential synonymy was expressed
collectively.
See also 11.5, "*Names to be used as valid when proposed*"
*"valid"*, from the ICZN glossary: "*in the case of a name, which is the
correct name of a taxon in an author's taxonomic judgment*"
>From Sharkey: "*few synonyms will be generated in our current effort*", "*The
probability of any of these [already described] ten species being in the
current revision can be estimated [...]*".

In my view, these sentences are not consistent with "Sharkey judged that
each name he proposed was the correct name for the taxon", that is what the
code requires.
Rather, they fit much better with "Sharkey did not judge his names
correct (sensu ICZN), as this would have required coordinating them with
the pre-existing ones he choosed not to apply".

Marco


Il giorno gio 31 ago 2023 alle ore 19:14 Richard Pyle <
deepreef at bishopmuseum.org> ha scritto:

> Two things:
>
> 1) I didn't see Thomas Pape's reply along the lines of Art. 15.1 before
> sending my missive, but I'm happy to see we agree on how to interpret that
> Article (though I do acknowledge there is a potentially legitimate
> alternative interpretation)
>
> 2) My SINCERE apologies to those who read the Digest version of this
> list!  I will try to be better about trimming the superfluous "fat" of
> quoted and re-quoted prior messages when I respond to threads like this.
>
> Aloha,
> Rich
>
> Richard L. Pyle, PhD
> Senior Curator of Ichthyology | Director of XCoRE
> Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
> 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817-2704
> Office: (808) 848-4115;  Fax: (808) 847-8252
> eMail: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
> BishopMuseum.org
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>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2023 7:09 AM
> > To: 'Stephen Thorpe' <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>; 'Marco Uliana'
> > <marco.uliana.1 at gmail.com>
> > Cc: 'Taxa com' <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>; 'Carlos Alberto Martínez
> > Muñoz' <biotemail at gmail.com>
> > Subject: RE: Taxacom: Minimalist revision of Mesochorus Gravenhorst, 1829
> >
> > > My personal view on this situation is to simply chose a justifiable
> > > interpretation of the Code and run with it.
> >
> > I always advocate that, when there is obvious doubt or acknowledged
> > ambiguity in the Code, one should always err on the side of "assuming
> it's
> > available unless there is a clear and explicit reason why it fails to
> fulfill some
> > criterion of the Code".
>
>
> ᐧ