[Nhcoll-l] Curating specimens with uncertain type status?

[Douglas Yanega]

On 8/2/23 8:39 AM, Shoobs, Nate wrote:
>
>   * The author, in the description, says something like this:
>     “Holotype: OSUM 1234, 10 specimens. Paratype: OSUM 4567, 1
>     specimen.”.
>
Speaking as an ICZN Commissioner, this right here is the core issue.

After 1999, a holotype designation must be of an individual specimen. 
The statement above does not designate a single specimen, it designates 
a "lot" containing multiple specimens. Prior to 2000, this would have 
devolved to a "by default" situation and the specimens in that lot would 
have been considered syntypes.

I personally don't think the name of this new taxon is available at all, 
as it has no validly-designated type specimen, because your ample 
evidence (that what happened here is the accidental switching of the 
words "holotype" and "paratypes" in the final published version) is not 
allowable for names after 1999. The problem is unusual enough that I 
will pass it by the other Commissioners to see what they think, but I 
doubt it is salvageable.

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
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