[Taxacom] A nomen nudum in Bombus

[Douglas Yanega]

As an ICZN Commissioner, I can confirm that "Bombus incognitus" is a 
nomen nudum. There is also another Bombus paper published recently in 
which a very well-known existing name (fernaldae) applied to a boreal 
species could have easily been preserved if the authors had selected a 
lectotype from the eastern US, because the western populations were 
found to belong to an Old World taxon (flavidus). Instead, they selected 
a lectotype from Alaska, thereby synonymizing the existing name, and 
created a new name, Bombus flavidus appalachiensis, for the eastern US 
populations, whose diagnosis was basically "It's from the Appalachian 
region and it has different COI barcodes". They also failed to note that 
the eastern populations already HAD a name given to them in 1911; while 
that name (Bombus tricolor) is a junior secondary homonym and 
unavailable, it should STILL have been listed as a senior synonym of 
appalachiensis, and not as a junior synonym of the Old World taxon.

It is increasingly evident that there is a new generation of researchers 
among which are many who are unfamiliar with the ICZN, or the practice 
of consulting taxonomic experts for advice before submitting 
manuscripts. By publishing works containing nomenclatural acts in 
journals focused on topics unrelated to nomenclature, it is a virtual 
guarantee that papers like these will never be peer-reviewed by anyone 
who could resolve these sorts of problems before they are in print.

Sincerely,

-- 
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