And what is in a name?

[Kelly Richers]

Well, it just so happens I am in the middle of a mess like that, so let me reply.  I caught a moth new to the United States in Pena Blanca, Arizona in 1989, and could not identify it.  Within two years, through the Smithsonian, I had it identified, with the help of experts, as Scoriopsis orsuna (Druce).  Unfortunately, Scoriopsis  as a genus was taken with priority through ICZN rules by another genus through prior publication naming, so the second genus listing identification took priority.  Imagine my disturbance to discover that the second moth genus naming datewise was "Speyeria".  Any one with butterfly interests knows that that one was dead in the water until another took priority.  I am pleased to say that the British Museum just organized the genus again and it is in their $350.00 book which I haven't purchased yet under another acceptable name.  That is the way these things work, and that is why some of us don't publish for 12 years or so after a discovery!

>>> Mark Walker <MWalker at gensym.com> 07/19/01 01:32PM >>>
Ron Gatrelle wrote:

<much snippage>

2) A
> transfer of organisms into a new or another genus (or species due to a
> change in rank to subspecies) occurs through new evolutionary
> understanding. This is not always agreed upon by all 
> "experts" and so more
> than one alignment may be found. However, the original 
> epithet given to the
> individual organism stays the same as it is immutable. In time all the
> adjustments (from finding and adopting the original immutable 
> epithets or
> from understanding the true evolutionary relationships) will 
> provide an
> everlasting unchanging nomenclature.

Just curious:  so what happens when an organism that is the oldest owner of
some original immutable name is later discovered to belong to another genus
with a different immutable name.  Is the old name now associated with the
next-oldest organism currently associated with that name?  Or can this be
justification for renaming the remaining organisms in this line?  What if
there is an older name originally assigned to the second-oldest organism -
one that was discarded when it was determined that it should be associated
with the former?

Sorry.  I'm just enjoying the complexity of it all as I prepare to relax
some specimens whose name I'm not even sure of, but whose beauty I am sure
of.

Mark Walker
Oceanside, CA
> 


------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20010719/297ab912/attachment.html