[Taxacom] Paralectotype question

[Adam Cotton]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Louis Zuparko" <rz at berkeley.edu>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2017 10:20 PM
Subject: [Taxacom] Paralectotype question


> In 1986, Orth designated a lectotype for Sepedon fuscipennis (Diptera:
> Sciomyzidae) from a series of 3 specimens (with basically the same labels)
> at the MCZ, making the other 2 specimens paralectotypes. However, some
> years before that, a fourth specimen from the same series (having the same
> labels) was sent to another institution, and thus Orth never saw that
> specimen.
>
> So, does that fourth specimen also merit paralectotype status? It is from
> the same series, but was not specifically mentioned by Orth.
>
> Thanks for any feedback,
>
> Robert Zuparko
> Essig Museum of Entomology
> 1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, #4780
> University of California
> Berkeley, CA 94720-3112
> (510) 643-0804
>


All other syntypes of a taxon for which a lectotype is designated become 
paralectotypes regardless of whether or not they are listed in the lectotype 
designation. If you can show that the fourth specimen was a syntype (ie. 
examined by the taxon author before he described it and not specifically 
excluded from the type series in the original description) then it also has 
paralectotype status.

I assume that you have already checked the original description to see how 
many type specimens are listed there, if there is such a listing. Many older 
descriptions do not state the number of specimens in the type series, but it 
is likely that the fourth specimen with a similar label was a syntype.

Adam.