A review of genus-group names in Diptera (Insecta) that J. C. Fabricius “ borrowed ” from other dipterists and proposed as new in his systematic works from 1775 to 1805
Author
Michelsen, Verner
Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: vmichelsen @ snm. ku. dk Canadian National Collection of Insects, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K 1 A 0 C 6. E-mail: james. ohara @ agr. gc. ca
Author
O’Hara, James E.
text
Zootaxa
2014
2014-10-14
3873
1
73
81
journal article
5299
10.11646/zootaxa.3873.1.6
4def451e-e1a4-496e-9cfb-6ccb4f6d88a1
1175-5326
4948111
66DDFEA9-E1CE-43C1-B09F-FE8504898312
Voluccella
Fabricius, 1794: 412
.
Type
species:
Voluccella florea
Fabricius, 1794
(the 1st of three originally included species), automatic as the result of
Latreille’s (1810)
designation of
Voluccella florea
Fabricius
as
type
species for
Usia
Latreille, 1802
, an unnecessary new replacement name for
Voluccella
Fabricius, 1794
.
Voluccella
Fabricius, 1794
was placed on the
Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology
(Name No. 844) by the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1957: 88)
and is therefore a senior but invalid synonym of
Usia
Latreille (Bombyliidae)
.
Remarks.
The name
Volucella
Geoffroy, 1762
, as originally proposed for species of
Syrphidae
, was cited under
Musca pellucens
Linnaeus, 1758
by
Fabricius (1775: 773
, misspelled as
Voluccella
; 1781: 435, as
Voluccella
), and under
Syrphus pellucens
(Linnaeus, 1758)
by
Fabricius (1794: 279
, as
Volucella
; 1805: 224, as
Voluccella
).
Fabricius (1794: 412)
deliberately proposed a different usage of the name
Voluccella
for three species of the family
Bombyliidae
, and this usage qualifies as a new available name. Two original spellings of the name were given in
Fabricius (1794)
:
Voluccella
(p. 412) and
Volvicella
(p. [5] of the unnumbered index). Acting as First Reviser,
Fabricius (1805)
selected
Voluccella
as the correct original spelling (
Code
Article 24.2.4).
Fabricius (1805: 114–116)
included six species of the
Bombyliidae
in his
Voluccella
.
Meigen (1804)
initially adopted the usage of
Voluccella
proposed by Fabricius, but the name was subsequently replaced by
Usia
Latreille.
Volucella
Geoffroy
and
Voluccella
Fabricius
are not homonyms because the names differ by one letter (
Code
Article 56.2).
Evenhuis & Greathead (2003: 10–11)
understood this and believed therefore that the widely used generic name
Usia
Latreille,
1802
in
Bombyliidae
, originally proposed as a replacement name for
Voluccella
Fabricius, 1794
, was threatened as a junior synonym. These authors were aware that
Voluccella
Fabricius
was invalid as the result of a ruling by the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1957: 88)
(see
Evenhuis 1991: 77
) but were concerned that this ruling could be challenged and potentially overturned (as allowed under
Code
Article 80.4) because it was based on the misinterpretation of
Voluccella
as a misspelling of
Volucella
Geoffroy
(N. Evenhuis, pers. comm.). To permanently fix the priority of
Usia
Latreille, 1802
over
Voluccella
Fabricius, 1794
,
Evenhuis & Greathead (2003)
declared the former as a
nomen protectum
and the latter as a
nomen oblitum
.