Federal listings done by common names? / professional society com mon names?

[Chris J. Durden]

Mike,
    Maybe they have mended their ways - I hope so. They used not to publish 
the scientific name in the Federal Register.
    An awful lot of the references, yes, serious references to threatened 
and endangered species is done by common name alone without the courtesy of 
a one-time mention of the scientific name. For instance I have a list of 
presumed taxa to identify, of which I have only the common name. What are -
UNRECOGNIZED SPECIES:
CARSON VALLEY WOOD NYMPH - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
NEVADA ADMIRAL - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
OSO FLACO PATCH - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
STEPTOE VALLEY CRESCENTSPOT - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
WHITE RIVER WOOD NYMPH - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
YONTOCKET SATYR - #CANDIDATE FOR THREATENED STATUS, USA, 1993.
   As I recall these names were taken directly from the Federal Register.
.................Chris Durden


At 12:10 PM 2/25/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Chris,
>
>Unless you can show otherwise, please retract the following statement:
>
> >    The biggest embarrassment in the United States is that our Federal and
> > some state listings of endangered species are done by common name rather
> > than by scientific name.
>
>Every single member of either the plant or animal kingdom listed in the
>Federal Register as threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
>Service is identified by its binomial if not by its trinomial. The most
>recent example of this was the petition to list the Miami Blue. I quoted the
>first sentence here:
>
>"Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 2 / Thursday, January 3, 2002 / Proposed
>Rules
>
>"SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a
>90-day finding for a petition to list the Miami blue butterfly (Hemiargus
>thomasi bethunebakeri) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
>amended."
>
>Complete Document:
>http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&doci
>d=02-36-filed.pdf
>
>--------------
>
>As for there being "no professional society regulation of common names",
>please consider the following.
>
>The Entomological Society of America is the world's largest entomological
>society. (I think they have about 8,000 members world wide.) According to
>the following notice posted on their web site, they consider their "Common
>Names of Insects" to be one of the six "essential core ... publications" for
>their society.
>
>http://www.entsoc.org/catalog/
>
>Mike Quinn

Mike,
    These names are not regulated in the way names of building materials 
are regulated by Engineering Societies, or names of drugs are regulated by 
Parmaceutical Professional organizations. I think it is a good thing that 
they are not!
...............Chris Durden


 
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