Taxacom: Single official lists of taxa (sensu Doug Yanega many proposals to this list)

[Douglas Yanega]

On 7/4/23 2:04 PM, George Beccaloni via Taxacom wrote:
> Hi Jose,
>
> My comment about it being a massive waste of effort was about the gender
> agreement part of the list. Someone, Doug it seems, needs to spend years
> determining the genders of all the genus-group names - which could IMHO
> have been better spent on doing other things.

Briefly: it only takes years if you are doing it in your spare time, 
rather than as a primary focus. As an exercise, I determined the genders 
of well over 5000 genera a few days ago, *in less than an hour*. How? 
Because the Code mandates, in Articles 30.1.1, 30.1.2, and 30.1.3, that 
names, if they are or end in a Latin or latinized Greek word, MUST match 
the gender given in Latin and Greek dictionaries - overriding any and 
all statements by the original author, or subsequent usage, and based 
ONLY upon the treatment of those words/suffixes in dictionaries. Article 
30.1.4.3 is similar: a genus ending in "-ops" is always masculine.

This makes it possible to assign genders to genus names for the 
overwhelming majority of all published names with access to (1) a 
digital list of genus names, and (2) a comprehensive dictionary. *The 
original literature does not need to be consulted for most published names*.

For example, names ending in "-ops" comprise approximately 0.5% of all 
genus names. If the list of all genus names in zoology is 400,000, then 
right there that's 2000 names checked off the list instantly. Names 
ending in "-opsis" are all feminine, and comprise another 0.7%, while 
"-cerus" is masculine and another 0.5%, and so forth, and so forth (just 
think of all the genera ending in "-saurus" and "-odon"). By the time 
you're done checking off the names for which gender assignment is 
mandatory and unambiguous, you've almost finished the entire job. This 
part of the task does *not* take years.

The effort is asymptotic: it's the tail of the distribution, the names 
that *must* have the original description consulted (e.g., Articles 
30.1.4, 30.1.4.4, and 30.2), that take time. That's where taxonomists 
have to expend scholarly effort.

> Global catalogues of names
> are (of course) of vital importance and I am pleased to say that I have
> been doing my bit! Not only did I create the Cockroach Species File
> (synonymic catalogue of all 'true'' cockroaches - unfinished of course)

And that is an admirable and important scholarly effort, and *very* 
valuable. You can expect that everyone who works on Species Files of 
this sort will be acknowledged and eventually asked to contribute to any 
efforts at a master list of names. As Jose correctly noted, the best way 
forward is to get as much "bottom up" effort coordinated as possible, 
and then fill in gaps. The point is not that there is not work to be 
done, but that *if people have already done the work*, it only goes to 
waste if someone else repeats the exact same effort, and we want to 
avoid that. As much as we appear to disagree, I do truly hope that when 
the time comes, that you will be willing to share what you have 
accomplished with those of us trying to compile master lists. For that 
matter, if you are *presently* capable of providing a list of all the 
genus-rank names in Blattodea and their genders, we would be *very* 
grateful to receive that information and your permission to incorporate 
it, with acknowledgment, into the master list. That same request goes to 
any and all members of this mailing list in a similar position - the 
effort to compile the master list is in fact already under way.

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)
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