[Tcs-lc] concepts of Higher taxa

Paul Kirk p.kirk at cabi.org
Fri Apr 1 00:22:06 PST 2005


My point re homonym is that nomenclators have not always captured data to indicate which one of two or more homonyms an author intended the new species to belong to - perhaps an imperfection of previous indexing services.
 
Agreed. I see only further confusion if we further muddy the waters between taxonomy and nomenclature. In any case such a proposal to change the ICBN would fail.
 
For me one of the primary elements in defining a "genus concept" is the included species so I fail to see how the description of a new species cannot change (if genus concepts are mutable) or create (if genus concepts are immutable) a genus concept.
 
Paul

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As for homonyms, rarely is the case (in fishes, at least), where it is not 
clear from the original description which of several hononym genera a new 
species was placed.  Is this a common problem in botany? 

I don't think that would be a good course of action for the codes, for a 
couple of reasons -- mostly because the codes deal with nomenclature, not 
concept circumscriptions. 

If it is expressly different from previous concepts, then a new genus concept is 
implicated.

> In order for a new species to be incorporated into a generic 
> concept a specific act of inclusion must be performed at which 
> point a new generic concept is created. 

Wouldn't you regard the placement of a new species within a genus as a 
specific act of inclusion?

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