ICZN Article 32.5 - incorrect original spellings

[Ron at]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Read" <g.read at NIWA.CRI.NZ>
Subject: Re: ICZN Article 32.5 - incorrect original spellings


> > The 3rd edition gives as one of the examples of the application of the
> > article the case of Eptesicus douglasi, named after Marion and Athol
> > Douglas, which must be corrected to E. douglasorum. In the 4th edition,
> > this particular example is missing.
> >
> > My questions are the following:
> >
> > - does the grammatically incorrect "douglasi" in that example simply
> > constitute an "incorrect latinization"
>
> Actually no. The advice given to me was to the effect that the
douglasorum
> example was probably an error of judgement to include in the 3rd edition.
> The original author could have been linking the species to the Douglas
> family name rather than the two individuals, thus douglasi was acceptable
> as a latinization, and the updating to douglasorum was always
> unnecessary.  This could apply to all such 'corrections'. I wonder
whether
> one should now change them back  :^)
>

Much of this depends on the actual wording of the author in the original
description. If the author states that they are naming the organism after
only a man or woman then that calls for a male or female ending - which can
take several forms. If the author specifically states that they are naming
the organism for both the Douglases (who are mentioned as a male and a
female) then the ourm (of the) ending.

On a slightly different vain, I personally favor leaving individual
epithets as put forth in the original description regardless of generic
alignment.  I see no point in changing the endings to agree with generic
genders when every few years the species may be shuffled from one to
another to another. If it was originally a ...lata don't change it to
...latus just because some workers think it is now part of a Us genus.
Some things should be changed to meet a proper spelling - but unilaterally
properly spelled names should be left along.  This is the easiest part of
"stability" to institute.

Ron Gatrelle
http://tils-ttr.org