Taxacom: a class of errors in Worms (and similar databases)

[Douglas Yanega]

On 2/23/25 9:54 AM, Tony Rees via Taxacom wrote:
> Dear Erikjan,
>
> I believe you are right. I cannot think of a circumstance where a species
> name without parentheses in the authorship should have an earlier year than
> its containing genus, so that should be a sign that something is incorrect.
> My database (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irmng.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cc734d7ecb7014366a48808dd54f1b84d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638760119361917364%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=D1BVwpslNV%2F93%2FrYJVWMnDCH4b7bVXTHwZwrVOJJDss%3D&reserved=0) has inherited a large number of species
> binomials from other systems, but they have not undergone rigorous checking
> in this respect and possibly never will, until we have resources to devote
> to that task. But for other systems with more available editor effort, this
> could certainly be a consideration for auto-checking, I would say.
>
> Regards - Tony

There is at least one situation where this is possible: Article 11.9.3.1 
allows a species name to be made available even when the genus name it 
is combined with is not. So, if the first publication of a name (in 
toto) did not make the *genus* name available, but the *species* name 
was made available, then if someone later validated the exact same genus 
name, you CAN have a species name that is older than the genus, and yet 
not in parentheses.

The comment later in the thread about there being a "blind spot" in BHL 
such that it will report occurrences of genus names prior to 
their recognized publication also runs into this same issue: genus names 
sometimes appear in print *before* they are made available. So, using 
the recognized date of a genus name as a cutoff would make it impossible 
to locate records of nomina nuda that preceded the availability of that 
same name.

In entomology, these sorts of scenarios play out with some frequency, 
especially regarding works by certain authors (e.g., Dejean and Chevrolat).

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314  voicemail:951-827-8704
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
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