Fw: Re: common names

[Michael Gochfeld]

Padus is (was?) considered a subgenus of Prunus by some. My error. I 
should have written Prunus (Padus) virginiana. RG

I don't think that form is anywhere stated.  However, including a name 
in [square brackets] has sometimes been used to identify members of a 
superspecies.

I felt the same way when the name of the Black-capped Chickadee was 
changed from Parus to Poecile. But that's only because it had been Parus 
for my entire lifetime. It used to be Poecile a hundred years ago. The 
50 year rule wouldn't apply, because the current name change was on 
biologic grounds (generic reassignment) rather than on nomenclatorial 
grounds. 

With regard to whether 20% of the names have changed, that is an 
artifact of how many species there are in genera or families that have 
been closely scrutinized and "revised". 

I still think that scientific names have more spatial stability and 
common names more temporal stability (independent of how they sound and 
how easy they are to learn). 

Mike Gochfeld



 
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