The generic position of the Nubian Bustard Neotis nuba (Cretzschmar, 1826) (Aves: Otididae)
Author
Collar, Nigel J.
0000-0001-9677-3611
BirdLife International, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB 2 3 QZ, UK. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 9677 - 3611 & Bird Group, Natural History Museum, Akeman Street, Tring, Herts. HP 23 6 AP, UK.
Author
Kirwan, Guy M.
Bird Group, Natural History Museum, Akeman Street, Tring, Herts. HP 23 6 AP, UK. & Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.
text
Zootaxa
2023
2023-07-07
5315
2
122
130
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5315.2.2
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5315.2.2
1175-5326
FD76DFA7-6308-4003-93BE-7C72C1AE6997
Nubotis
,
gen. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:
AB1561DD-1FF0-4C9D-9294-34FBC3ACDF7D
Type
species.
Otis nuba
Cretzschmar, 1826
(currently
Neotis nuba
).
Included species.
Nubotis nuba
(
Cretzschmar, 1826
)
,
new combination
.
Diagnosis.
Characters unique to the new genus among bustards are (1) a long broad sandy-rufous stripe on the central crown, (2) a forked tail involving somewhat specialised outer rectrices, and (3) a display in which the male walks with the tail-fork raised high and wing-tips resting between the fork.
Etymology and remarks.
The name
Nubotis
combines the roots
nuba
(ancient Nubia, in the Nile Valley in the south of
Egypt
and north of
Sudan
), the region in which the species was first found, hence its specific name, with
otis
, from the Greek ωτις ôtis, a bustard. The gender is feminine. The name
Nubotis
, which we independently coined, proves to have been used by J. Gaudin in an online commentary at https://www.birdforum.net/threads/mytaxonomic-predictions.426076/page-7, posted in mid-2022 and already listed in https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/ key-to-scientific-names/search?q=
Otis
. However, this name was introduced without fulfilling the requirements of publication (presumably deliberately on the part of the commentator) including registration in the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (ZooBank) (Art 8.5.3 and 11.1), lacking any formal description or definition to differentiate the taxon (Art. 13.1.1) or, alternatively, a bibliographic reference to a prior published statement of such (Art. 13.1.2), and self-evidently failing to constitute a published work under the
revised Art.
9 (ICZN 1999, 2012). Furthermore, being part of a list of predictions, it might be judged to fail a test of availability due to being a conditional proposal (Art. 15.1).