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<p>This case is presently being discussed within the Commission.</p>
<p>At present, 5 Commissioners have ventured opinions. Four
(including myself) have stated that they would consider the
species name to be available from the original publication, though
with very slight differences in reasoning. One considers the name
unavailable.</p>
<p>I post this in part to let people know that we on the Commission
take these things seriously, and we do like having them brought to
our attention.</p>
<p>I post this in part to note that usually we achieve a consensus
but rarely is it unanimous, and that not everyone in the
Commission participates in general discussions.</p>
<p>Finally, I post this to note that we are in the process of
drafting the next Edition of the Code, and this <b>general</b>
situation will be accommodated there. By that I mean that the
failure to individually discriminate the holotype from other
members of the type series will, in the next edition of the Code,
result in the type series being treated as syntypes, a significant
change from Code 4; apparently this has happened a number of times
since Code 4 went into effect in 2000, and taxonomists have
evidently ALWAYS been treating those names as available, even
though the Code technically does not support this. If this is
taxonomic practice, then it seems prudent for us to codify it,
rather than double down on the existing policy. I think people
here need to be aware that the Commission can respond in this way,
to bring the Code in line with what taxonomists are doing, rather
than the proverbial "cart leading the horse".</p>
<p>This particular case would <b>not</b> fall under that new
provision because there is a reference, in the publication, to a
holotype <b>in association with a specific figure of a single
specimen</b>; had the listing of types in the text been the <b>only</b>
relevant material in the publication, then the consensus shifts
(from 4 to 1, to 2 to 3) that the name would have been unavailable
under the present Code.</p>
<p>Some cases really are challenging to fit into the existing rules.</p>
<p>Sincerely,<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html">https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
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