[Taxacom] [iczn-list] provisions to the Code

[Doug Yanega]

On 4/15/14 2:27 PM, Fautin, Daphne G. wrote:
> Sorry, but the illustration is not the type.  The Code clearly stipulates that it is the individual illustrated that is the type -- Article 72.5.6.
>
I admit I did not make the nuances here entirely clear, and John Noyes 
phrased it better:

On 4/15/14 10:10 AM, John Noyes wrote:
> Being a bit nitpicky about this, the code here (Art. 73.1.4) does NOT 
> allow the designation of an illustration (per se) as a type, it only 
> allows the specimen that is illustrated to be designated as a type. A 
> picture in itself cannot be designated as a holotype, only the 
> specimen that it illustrates. 
> In other words if the code meant that the picture itself were the 
> holotype then if that picture exists then it would not be possible to 
> designate a neotype for the species (without recourse to the ICZN). 
> However, if the illustrated specimen were destroyed then it would be 
> possible to designate a neotype of that species without recourse to 
> the ICZN so long as all the condition for designating a neotype were met.
>
You are both correct, and it relates to the "per se" qualification. Yes, 
this affects neotype designation, and while it's subtle, the distinction 
here is accurate; you can replace an illustration with a neotype exactly 
as if the holotype is lost, so an illustration is not actually a 
holotype even though it *can be* *designated* as such; the exact wording 
of the Code (with my emphasis added) is

"Designation of an illustration of a single specimen as a holotype IS TO 
BE TREATED AS designation of the specimen illustrated"

Thus you can, in fact, designate the illustration AS the type, but that 
does not mean that the photograph IS the type. We are all in agreement 
on this, it is simply that the phrasing is complicated.

Sincerely,

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