Becklin vs. Thunberg

Kondla, Norbert SRM:EX Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
Tue Dec 10 11:40:43 EST 2002


Here is another issue that needs some air time since there are the usual
differing views. It has to do with authorship of a number of butterfly and
moth names that are often attributed to Thunberg 1791 - eg. Boloria frigga &
freija.  Gorbunov in butterflies of Russia decided that authorship rests
with Becklin for these butterflies and I seem to recall some other people
have come to the same conclusion. Last winter I looked into this and
compared the Code rules for determining authorship against the original
descriptions and concluded also that authorship rests with Becklin.  A paper
on the 'Thunberg' types and the issue of authorship was published in a
European journal some years ago (sorry, don't have the citation handy at the
moment). The authors presented their reasons for keeping Thunberg as author
of the names.  The problem with the criteria used and conclusion reached by
these good people is that they did not even mention the existence of the
Code and did not use the Code to address the issue.  They presented some
reasons for authorship that are completetely outside the rules provided by
the Code. So consequently I cannot accept their view that Thunberg is the
author pursuant to the Code.  I would be grateful if anyone can explain to
me how the Code makes Thunberg the author of the names that Becklin
authored; I may have missed something on this topic. Thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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       



 
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