[Taxacom] ICZN - gender of genus-group name ending in -oops
Stephen Thorpe
stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz
Sun May 22 21:41:41 CDT 2016
2016
>The return to original combination is the solution adopted by the Lepidopterist community<
Er, no! They just don't bother with gender agreement, they don't return names to original combinations!
Stephen
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 23/5/16, Ivie, Michael <mivie at montana.edu> wrote:
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] ICZN - gender of genus-group name ending in -oops
To: "David Redei" <david.redei at gmail.com>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Received: Monday, 23 May, 2016, 2:23 PM
David,
The return to original
combination is the solution adopted by the Lepidopterist
community, it is not the only one, nor possibly the best.
It is not me that has proposed that solution. I still
dutifully follow the Code. We already have the possibility
to create authoritative lists as of a particular date, that
reset the clock for some types of changes, and it could be
that gender does not change after that date.
In your senario, the ecologist
has lost interest and wandered off long before you get to
the end of your explaination. They really don't care,
by and large, about our little name games (an
ecologist's term, not my view).
It could be that no ending on a species epithet
changes between 2020 and 2120. Before that, we are stuck
with the history we have.
Mike
________________________________________
From: Taxacom [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu]
on behalf of David Redei [david.redei at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 7:18 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] ICZN - gender of
genus-group name ending in -oops
Mike,
> Here a generalized conversation I have had
over and over:
>
> Ecologist: "What is this species? It
has never been associated with this
>
plant before."
> Me: "Oh, that
is the same as the species you have been working with, it
> has just been moved to another
genus."
> Ecologist: "But, both
names are different, not just the genus, it must be
> something different."
> Me: "No, it is just that the ending
is changed to conform with Latin
>
grammer."
> Ecologist: "But I
am writing in English, not Latin, so I use which
ending?"
> Me: "It is a rule,
the ending changes."
> Ecologist:
"You taxonomists need to leave the 18th century behind
and
> embrace the 21st! No wonder you
have trouble getting respect and funding
> in the modern world."
>
Your
conversation is delightful. Here is another one from the
future.
Ecologist:
"What is this species, Nezara viridulus? I have never
seen this
name."
Me:
"Oh, that is the same as Nezara viridula (the Green
Vegetable Bug) you
have been working
with."
Ecologist: "Oh, but the
species name is different, it must be something
different."
Me:
"Briefly, it was described in 1758 as Cimex viridulus.
It was
transferred to the genus Nezara in
1843, and according to the rules that
time
it changed the ending to conform with Latin grammar, it
became Nezara
viridula. It was cited as
Nezara viridula for nearly 200 years, and as it
is probably the agriculturally most significant
Heteroptera, 1000+ papers
used this name.
But recently we taxonomist have decided that we want to
leave the 18th Century behind and embrace the
21st. Therefore the rules of
naming animals
were modified in that way that for all animals the
original
spelling of the specific epithet
must be used, with no regard of the
current
taxonomic placement of the species, because this will make
dealing
with the names more easy for those
who do not want to look up Latin words
on
Wiktionary. So it is now Nezara viridulus. But be careful,
only Nezara
viridula has changed to Nezara
viridulus, Nezara antennata and Nezara
yunnana won't change to Nezara antennatus
and Nezara yunnanus, those will
remain
unchanged. From now on, if you want to know the correct name
of an
animal, you will only need to look up
the original description, so simple.
You can complete the script and write the last
line, the reply of the
ecologist / applied
entomologist.
With best
regards, David
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