[Taxacom] the family Tortricidae or just Tortricidae

[Douglas Yanega]

On 10/14/20 10:26 AM, Richard Jensen via Taxacom wrote:
> By my reckoning, the two statements below
>
>      1. The family Tortricidae
>      2. The Tortricidae
>
> are grammatically equivalent and I would recommend "is" for both.  Family
> is implicit in the second statement because that's what Tortricidae is; the
> word "family" is redundant. In fact, "The" in both statements is also
> unnecessary.

Depends on context, not the prefix. Consider "The New York Jets":

I can say "The New York Jets is an NFL football franchise" and I can say 
"The New York Jets are losers". Both are acceptable. You might get away 
with "are" in the first case, but you could NEVER use "is" in the second 
case.

;-)

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)
              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82