Still another code violation

[Michael Gochfeld]

Alex, I worry about that a lot. Particularly up in the Albany area I
keep hoping to find cocyta, but haven't yet.  We did see one individual
in northern NJ which we were confident was cocyta, but it eluded us. 

But you mention obvious differences.  What are they in your view.

I'm not surprised that observers take for granted that everything is
tharos. The odds are certainly in its favor in many places.  In NJ
virtually no one thinks of cocyta.

But the same could be said for the tiger swallowtails, large
fritillaries, etc. I'm sure lots of things get overlooks by being taken
for more common species. 
 MIKE GOCHFELD

"Grkovich, Alex" wrote:
> 
> The other thing is that, at least here onthe North Shore of Boston, P.
> cocyta is being almost totally overlooked by MassLep people who are calling
> EVERY Crescent they see here "Pearls". Despite the obvious differences of
> appearance between the two.
>    Alex
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Gochfeld [SMTP:gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU]
> > Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 8:22 AM
> > To:   Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
> > Cc:   'lepsl'; 'altabugs'
> > Subject:      Re: Still another code violation
> >
> > I really appreciate Norbert's clarificatrion of the "selenis" vs "cocyta"
> > issue, since we got it at least 75% wrong in our book. We wrote for
> >
> > "Phyciodes selenis (Wright, 1905)
> >
> > "Also listed as Pyciodes pascoensis and as P. tharos type B.
> > Scott (1994) revised the Crescents and provides compelling argument that
> > the
> > name with priority is P.cocyta (Cramer 1777). Listed as a subspecies of
> > Pearl
> > Crescent by Miller and Brown (1981). The nomenclature is still not
> > settled."
> > (p. 186 in Butterflies of New Jersey).
> >
> > So can we write a coda indicating that it is NOW SETTLED.  Mike Gochfeld
> >
> >
> > "Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX" wrote:
> >
> > > On top of the names Phyciodes pratensis and Colias pseudochristina which
> > > violate the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature; I just
> > noticed
> > > another error in Butterflies through Binoculars - the west. This one is
> > > Phyciodes selenis. A thorough review of Phyciodes nomenclature that was
> > > published some years ago made it clear that the correct name according
> > to
> > > the rules is Phyciodes cocyta. Cocyta has been used by most authors
> > since
> > > then, except for those few people who still like to lump cocyta with
> > tharos
> > > despite the evidence to the contrary. The reason is a simple matter of
> > 60
> > > years priority of cocyta over selenis. There is an added issue which is
> > not
> > > yet widely known. Cocyta has a neotype. It is not known if selenis even
> > has
> > > any syntypes. It certainly does not have a lectotype nor neotype. Last
> > > winter I read the original description of selenis and it is clearly a
> > nomen
> > > dubium (name of uncertain application). I pointed this out to a few
> > other
> > > people who then read the OD and also came to the same conclusion. Of
> > course
> > > people who do not want to play by the rules can continue to use
> > pratensis
> > > and selenis and whatever else they want to :-)
> > >
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
> > > Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
> > > 845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
> > > Phone 250-365-8610
> > > Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
> > > http://www.env.gov.bc.ca
> > >
> > >
> > >  ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >    For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
> > >
> > >    http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >    For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
> >
> >    http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl
> >

-- 

================================================
Michael Gochfeld, MD, PhD
Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
170 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854  USA
732-445-0123 X627  fax 732-445-0130

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

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl