Fw: send to whomever you like

Ron Gatrelle gatrelle at tils-ttr.org
Tue May 8 19:40:14 EDT 2001


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wright, David M" <WrightD.nph at penncare.org>
To: <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>
Cc: <HPavulaan at aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 6:56 PM
Subject: send to whomever you like


 Modified summary ....

My contention holds firm today, just as it was several years ago with the
first NABA list, and that is if the NABA Committee accepts the Holly Azure
and the Summer Azure under any common name(s) they wish to call them, then
they are species!  The reasoning is as follows: They persist in calling
them subspecies in taxonomic terms.  As sympatric entities, it is illogical
and improper to chose to call them subspecies, as they have done. The only
other alternative is something way below the subspecies level.  For
consistency, the treatment of idella and neglecta should be no different
than that of nigra and neglectamajor.  The real scientists on the committee
must feel a little uneasy about this odd naming practice, where the made-up
rules for common names clash with the standardized rules for scientific
names.  One of them should step forward, and either accept these Celastrina
as good species or drop them from the list altogether.   Meanwhile, I stand
by my contention above, backed up by the real rules (ICZN Code). To
reiterate, if NABA accepts a congeneric sympatric entity mistakenly at the
subspecific level, irregardless of the message implicit in its common name,
then it is a species!  Furthermore, in this light, the NABA checklist can
be
used as a citation to validate the acceptance of properly-described
species-level taxa in Celastrina.

 Respectfully,
 David Wright









 
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