[Zoobank-list] names vs. citations (of names)

[Faunaplan at aol.com]

Dear David Eades,
in my opinion, by keeping the two things separate: formal facts governed by 
the Code and facts of usage events, we can provide a more complete information 
basis.
For example, when you have a checklist like this:
Aus albus AuthorA 1900
Aus bus AuthorB 1800
syn.: Xum album AuthorC 1890
Can you make out a secondary homonymy in this example? You cannot, because at 
least you would need to know what kind of epithet is "album": noun in 
apposition or variable adjective that takes the ending alb-us when synonymized under 
the masculine genus.
In my "Nomina Carabidarum" I noted the gender of each genus, the kind of 
epithets, the variable endings of adjectival epithets, availability of names and 
history of generic combinations for each epithet. In this way it's easy to spot 
primary and secondary homonyms, get the correct gender matches in binomina, 
etc. Recently I was invited so I'm trying now to find a way to contribute my 
data to Joel Hallan's "BioCat", and I'm interested to know how can I do it 
without major loss of information.
 
Your mention of the debate with ITIS is interesting. I saw more debates of 
this sort elsewhere, but where is the rule saying that you must not adapt a 
generic combination of a synonym? Is it because some bioinformatics folks want to 
treat zoological names in the same way as botanic names? Is it because they 
want checklists to represent a "neutral" view and include actual citations only?
Apropos, I don't believe a taxonomic checklist can ever be "neutral". It has 
to be done and authorized by an expert who may have to decide on nov.combs, 
changes in rank, etc. Simply compiling uncritical checklists from entries in 
Zoological Record doesn't work, as we all know. 
 
I hope that ZooBank will be the place where we can get the full information 
belonging to the "realm of nomenclature". Once we have such a resource, 
checklists in the "realm of taxonomy" -  like the wonderful SpeciesFile Orthoptera 
etc. lists or Joel Hallan's BioCat  - need not repeat all the same.
 
Best wishes,
Wolfgang
---------------------------------
Wolfgang Lorenz, Tutzing, Germany
 



   

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