[Taxacom] the family Tortricidae or just Tortricidae (s'more)

[Tim Dickinson]

I agree with Fred, logic (and context) are everything. "The Torticidae 
is a family of..." but "The Tortricidae studied here are ..."

Personally, I prefer to avoid prefixing a family or genus name with "the 
family" or "the genus" unless that is called for, again, by the context, 
perhaps to avoid confusion. Probably it's a conditioned response to 
having grown up with Strunk and White's 'The Elements of Style,' and 
seek to omit needless words where possible.

---tad.


> Subject:
> Re: [Taxacom] the family Tortricidae or just Tortricidae
> From:
> "Frederick W. Schueler" <bckcdb at istar.ca>
> Date:
> 2020-10-13, 12:36 p.m.
>
> To:
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>
>
> On 13-Oct.-20 11:43 a.m., Richard Jensen via Taxacom wrote:
>
>>  if referring to the family as a single
>> entity, then treat it as singular; when there is a stated or implied
>> reference to only some members of the family, or using the informal name
>> (e.g., rosids, tortricids), then treat it as a plural. 
>
>
> * but the main point in this is that taxa are nested individuals - the 
> higher taxon is a holophyletic individual as is each species of which 
> it's composed (and the species is a monophyletic individual made up of 
> individual organisms). Whether you use a plural or singular depends on 
> whether you're referring to all or some of the subordinate taxa as a 
> collective, or to the higher taxon as a single holophyletic 
> individual. You get the same thing with other collective entities - 
> you can say "the United States is..." or "the United States are..." 
> depending on the context.
>
> fred. 

  
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