[Taxacom] Drosophila melanogaster name change?

[Doug Yanega]

Brian Tindall wrote:

>In looking at the top hits I can only comment:
>1) that the prokaryote genus name Bacillus is a known homonym of an
>insect name.

These are pseudo-homonyms, as they are governed by different 
Nomenclatural Codes. There is no conflict.

>3) The genus Escherichia overlaps with the genus Shigella (Shigella 
>dysenteriae causes dysentery) and the two should be unified. Both 
>names were originally published in the same book and the genus name
>Shigella appears on an earlier page in that book.

I may be reading between the lines, but it sounds like you may 
believe that there is such a thing as "page priority". There is not, 
at least not in the Zoological Code. The first reviser chooses which 
of two (or more) simultaneously-published names is to be used as 
valid, and they are - and always have been - free to choose the name 
that appears last. "Page priority" is one of the most prevalent 
"urban legends" surrounding the Code. I doubt it is any different for 
prokaryotes.

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82