[Taxacom] Correct name of the Wasp Spider

[David Campbell]

A related issue is how to interpret the provisions relating to homonymy.
To what extent should "corrected" names be regarded as making later usages
of those spellings unavailable?  This has generated varying
interpretations.  Herrmannsen's mid-1800's catalogue of Mollusca (s.l.) and
Agassiz's Nomenclatoris zoologici index universalis are examples with
alteration of huge numbers of names to make them better Latinized, and
different sources accept or reject them as preoccupying names for purposes
of homonymy.

On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 1:19 PM, Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu> wrote:

> On 7/7/17 5:14 AM, Dilrukshan Wijesinghe wrote:
>
>> This is a classic case of nomenclatural busybodies "correcting" original
>> spellings to their notion of what a name should be, without following the
>> original spelling. The same thing has happened with numerous other spider
>> names (and no doubt with the names of other animal species). To take
>> another spider example: the original spelling of the name of the
>> pantropical jumping spider which is usually given as "Plexippus paykulli"
>> (with one terminal i) was Attus paykullii, described by Audouin in 1826.
>> With its transfer to the genus Plexippus the name should, of course, be
>> written as Plexippus paykullii (Audouin, 1826), yet the World Spider
>> Catalog (http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/32089/Plexippus_paykulli) gives
>> it as Plexippus paykulli. Roewer (1954, Katalog der Araneae, 2b, p. 1086)
>> gives this name correctly as Plexippus paykullii.
>> I think the wholesale changing of -ii to -i for the names of spiders was
>> introduced in the more recent spider catalogs.
>>
>
> There is a Code Article for this specific type of change (below), and the
> same rule (33.3.1) applies; if the incorrect spelling is in prevailing
> usage, then it *becomes* correct, accordingly. If the only place these
> spider names are spelled "-i" is in the catalogs, then they might not
> qualify as being in prevailing usage (also below).
>
> "33.4.Use of -/i/for -/ii/and vice versa, and other alternative spellings,
> in subsequent spellings of species-group names.The use of the genitive
> ending -/i/in a subsequent spelling of a species-group name that is a
> genitive based upon a personal name in which the correct original spelling
> ends with -/ii/, or vice versa, is deemed to be an incorrect subsequent
> spelling, even if the change in spelling is deliberate; the same rule
> applies to the endings -/ae/and -/iae/, -/orum/and -/iorum/, and -/arum/and
> -/iarum/."
>
> "*usage, prevailing*,/n/.
>
> Of a name: that usage of the name which is adopted by *at least a
> substantial majority of the most recent authors* concerned with the
> relevant taxon, *irrespective of how long ago* their work was published."
> (emphasis mine, to highlight that one calculates usage by counting AUTHORS,
> not works, and that one can go back as far as one deems necessary to assess
> the pattern).
>
> I'm not pointing this out to start a debate over the pros and cons of
> "prevailing usage", only to point out that these provisions do exist, and
> that the reason these provisions exist is so people won't keep changing
> spelling back and forth based on finding old forgotten references, and
> arguments over grammar. The "novel" principle that the 2000 Code edition
> introduced is that stability is best achieved through consensus (rather
> than incessant one-upmanship as to who can dredge up the oldest and most
> obscure references, or make the most scholarly foray into the nuances of
> Latin grammatical construction). It is unfortunately hard to come up with a
> purely objective criterion as to what, exactly, constitutes "consensus", so
> the definition of prevailing usage adopted is not perfect, but it's an
> approximation. Names can be rendered *permanently* unalterable via the List
> of Available Names (LAN: Article 79), but that's a special and difficult
> process.
>
> Peace,
>
> --
> 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
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>
>
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-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Assistant Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
Box 7270
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017