Taxacom: A nomenclatural puzzle - genus Galea Meyen,
1833 (mammal), preoccupied or not?
Thomas Pape
tpape at snm.ku.dk
Thu Dec 1 07:42:49 CST 2022
2022
As Francisco pointed out, a work is consistently binominal if it is applying a nomenclatural system in which species are denoted by a combination of two names.
Meuschen (1787) may in a few places have what look like polynominal generic names -- like GENVS LI. VMBILICI MARINI FORMES (p. 484) -- but he uses a one-letter abbreviation when combining them with specific names.
In a few places Meuschen (1787) is using a combination of an abbreviated generic name followed by two names:
Page 478: B. Cucullus planus
Page 480: A. Bardana maxim?
Page 485: C. Ovum Marinum
Page 496: M. Pileus Neptuni
Page 508: M. Rotundo stellata
I suppose the instances of two specific names could be interpreted as falling within binominal nomenclature because to the extent that they both refer descriptively to the generic name, but only the specific name (or names) is (are) put in italics, which perhaps is an indication that Meuschen did not apply a binominal system where species are denoted by a combination of two names.
I still think Meuschen (1787) is to be interpreted as not consistently binominal.
/Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Laurent Raty via Taxacom
Sent: 1. december 2022 10:40
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
Subject: Taxacom: [KU SUSPECT SPAM] Re: A nomenclatural puzzle - genus Galea Meyen, 1833 (mammal), preoccupied or not?
Meuschen did not use fully consistently uninominal names for his genera.
In particular, his "GENUS LVIII. DISCI TRANSFIXI." (p. 490) is the plural of "Discus transfixus", meaning "the Pierced Disks". (All of Meuschen's genus names occur only in the plural in headers, and reduced to an initial letter in species names.) Pretending that the plural ending of the adjective in a nominal group like "Disci transfixi" can be "corrected" to the singular, while leaving the plural noun (which this adjective agrees with) untouched -- thereby producing an improbable "Discitransfixus" --, is... well, odd.
An analysis of the ornithological part of Meuschen's work (pp. 38-65) was published in 1926 by Gregory Mathews (who did not discuss Meuschen's application of binominal nomenclature, and may indeed not have had a very close look at the rest of the work) -
Mathews GM. 1926. Another new book, which necessitates changes in nomenclature. Austral Avian Record, 5: 81-100.
Mathews' opinions on some of Meuschen's names were since (partly) followed. One of Meuschen's species names, Rallus cinereus Meuschen 1787 (p. 40), was used to displace Gracula carunculata Gmelin 1788, and is now Creatophora cinerea (Meuschen 1787). Another name, Tanagra atra Meuschen 1787 (p. 52), was used to displace a junior primary homonym, Tanagra atra Gmelin 1789, which gave way to Tanagra melanopis Latham 1790, now Schistochlamys melanopis (Latham 1790). However, despite Mathews' suggestion that it had to, Trochilus smaragdinus Meuschen 1787 (p. 48) did not displace Trochilus smaragdinus Gould 1846, which remains used as Aglaiocercus kingii smaragdinus (Gould 1846).
Cheers,? Laurent -
On 12/1/22 02:09, Francisco Welter-Schultes via Taxacom wrote:
> Dear Thomas,
> From where exactly did you extract the impression that Meuschen (1787)
> did not consistently apply the Principle of Binominal Nomenclature?
>
> Best wishes
> Francisco
>
> Am 30.11.2022 um 23:23 schrieb Thomas Pape via Taxacom:
>> ?From looking at the work by Meuschen (1787), I get the impression
>> that he did not consistently apply the Principle of Binominal
>> Nomenclature, and that means that any names in that work are outside
>> of zoological nomenclature (i.e., they are unavailable).
>>
>> /Thomas
>>
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