[Nhcoll-l] voucher

[Douglas Yanega]

On 11/3/22 11:12 AM, Simon Moore wrote:
> Thanks Doug,
>
> If we’re getting into type designations, I though that paratypes were 
> the other specimens collected with the holotype, and that if the 
> holotype was a female then a male allotrope would be designated as 
> well if both sexes were present.  If no holotype was described 
> (unusual these days) then the original collection would be syntypes?

Types in zoology and botany are slightly different, so I'll give the 
minimal info for zoology. Paratypes are any specimens from any source 
that the author states are specimens of a new taxon in that original 
paper, and ONLY in that original paper. They may or may not be the same 
sex or life stage as the holotype, or from the same geographic region. 
Designation of one specific paratype as an "allotype" is a practice not 
endorsed by the ICZN Code; it is an archaic practice, and we discourage 
it because it confuses people into assuming that those specimens are 
important in some way, and they aren't. Once a description of a new 
species is published, an author cannot designate more paratypes, nor can 
other authors.

Syntypes are either when no single specimen was selected from among the 
original material used for a description, *or* when an author 
intentionally designated multiple types in addition to having a set of 
paratypes. It isn't done very often any more, but it can actually be 
useful under *very* specific circumstances. For example, if I captured a 
*mating pair* (in copulo) of an insect I decided was a new species, 
having BOTH specimens as syntypes is preferrable, because they are then 
both curated more carefully (often physically separate from the rest of 
the collection), and if one is lost, the other still exists. Also, in 
the very, VERY unlikely event that this was a hybrid coupling, a 
subsequent author would be *free to choose* which one to make the 
lectotype.

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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20221103/dbc32309/attachment.html>