[Taxacom] Aenetus versus Achladaeus

[Stephen Thorpe]

On the subject of Aenetus versus Achladaeus, and a further nice illustration of some of the nonsense being propagated through the web, it is hard to make any sense of this: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/name/Achladaeus_paradiseus_Tindale_1953

Note that none of the bibliographical citations for this supposed 1953 original combination are post 1900! The record seems to be derived by entropy(!) from Oenetus [sic] paradiseus Tindale, 1953 Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 76 : 77

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 31/8/16, Ian Kitching <i.kitching at nhm.ac.uk> wrote:

 Subject: [Taxacom] Aenetus versus Achladaeus
 To: "'taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu'" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Wednesday, 31 August, 2016, 7:18 PM
 
 Let's not beat about the bush and
 call a spade a spade - what is being talked about here is
 the NHMUK's LepIndex database, of which I am now the
 "owner". LepIndex online was originally a project to make
 the extensive card indexes of the NHMUK available online to
 everyone because many people were coming to visit solely to
 consult those indexes, rich as they were in unpublished data
 added over the years by NHMUK staff. I will not defend the
 decision taken years ago to then feed this database to
 Species2000 and thence on to all and sundry, as it is
 seriously embarrassing, but it happened. What also happened
 was a contraction in funding and a refocussing of priorities
 that meant updating and editing of this and many other
 databases did not happen. Furthermore, being on the NHMUK
 website and so within its firewall meant that no-one outside
 could edit it. We did have a system for submission of
 corrections but as staff left for various reasons this fell
 into disuse.
 Anyway, that is history. A few years ago Chris Lyal and I
 obtained some funding to begin to look into updating
 LepIndex and moving it to a more open, community-friendly
 platform. With the help of Justin Ollerenshaw and Peter
 Wing, supported by Data Manager Adrian Hine, we updated the
 higher classification and as much of the species level
 classification as we could before the money ran out. We were
 then aiming to transfer LepIndex, merged with the Generic
 Names database, to a Species File. This we still aim to do
 but to the newer system being developed by that team, Taxon
 Works. It was slow going as this was not an official NHMUK
 digital project but we are getting there. The database will
 be moved shortly (I hope). Once in Taxon Works, and once the
 front end of that system has been worked out, we would be
 looking for specialists to register to act as curators of
 certain groups. At that point, they can begin to remove the
 remaining issues.
 
 And, yes, in the current offline version of LepIndex,
 Aenetus is the valid name, as we updated that group from
 Gaden Robinson's checklist and the Moths of Australia
 Checklist.
 
 
 "Just to bring the matter to conclusion, Tony's updating of
 the Achladaeus
 
 vs Aenetus problem in IRMING has recognized that the former
 is a nomen
 
 nudum. It is nice to see this quick response (thank you
 Tony) but it does
 
 point to the liability of databases that establish or
 present names without
 
 citation of published sources and clear explanation of the
 authenticity of
 
 the name. In this case I understand that the original
 database with the
 
 Achladaeus name was a database of card files in the
 institution that then
 
 got transitioned without appropriate oversight into a
 public  taxonomic
 
 names database and so a name that would otherwise never
 caught attention
 
 took off like a wildfire. No doubt the problem will persist
 until that
 
 institution applies the necessary resources to verify its
 entries (or take
 the database offline for the time being).2
 *************************************************************************************************************************************
 Dr Ian J. Kitching, Research Entomologist, Department of
 Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London
 SW7 5BD, U.K.
 
 Tel: (+44) (0)20 7942 5608 | Fax: (+44) (0)20 7942 5229 |
 email: I.Kitching at nhm.ac.uk<mailto:I.Kitching at nhm.ac.uk>
 Home page: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/entomology/i-kitching/index.html
 Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory: http://sphingidae.myspecies.info
 Sphingidae of South-East Asia version 1.5: http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch<http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch/>
 Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic: http://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/china.htm
 *************************************************************************************************************************************
 
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