Taxacom: species name vs specific epithet

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 29-Dec-22 6:22 p.m., Derek Sikes via Taxacom wrote:

> Can we all stop using the term 'species' as a sometimes synonym for 'specific epithet'?
> This is a super widespread problem, made all the more common by all the database search interfaces that have a field called 'species'.

* while I couldn't agree more when this is done in prose, in a 
hierarchical format, such as the database entry form given as an 
example, each of the categories is subordinate to, and part of, the ones 
above it.

A related problem is using the specific epithet in the place of the name 
of a species, and writing "cinereus" when "Plethodon cinereus" is meant 
(a problem I was alerted to fret about by Bill Brown in his evolution 
course at Cornell in 1968).

fred.
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> 
> A species name is composed of 2 words. Our species name is not 'sapiens',
> it is Homo sapiens.
> 
> And yet so often I see things like this -
> 
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwsc.nmbe.ch%2Fsearch&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C7ef829a9d3264f191acb08dae9f7ae91%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638079547240205820%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=U2WsLvksxIZYtFEgruoME9FWVAt6tZuRomgvVjKany8%3D&reserved=0
> 
> which uses the term 'species' where it should say 'specific epithet'
> 
> And also in introductory biology textbooks where they list something like:
> 
> Genus - Homo
> species - sapiens

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