Replacement names and nomenclatural comments for problematic species-group names in Europe's Neogene freshwater Gastropoda
Author
Neubauer, Thomas A.
Author
Harzhauser, Mathias
Author
Georgopoulou, Elisavet
Author
Mandic, Oleg
Author
Kroh, Andreas
text
Zootaxa
2014
2014-04-04
3785
3
453
468
journal article
5666
10.11646/zootaxa.3785.3.7
8eddca4b-08a5-433a-8e3a-c89fb483818e
1175-5326
4913363
D6E3D055-4390-4DC2-A9AC-0DBC40C2740F
Genus
Goniochilus
Sandberger, 1875
Type
species:
Pleurocera costulatum
Fuchs, 1870
.
Late Miocene
,
Romania
.
Subsequent
designation by
Wenz
(1926)
.
"
Goniochilus lecrenthey
Pană, 1990
"
[
nomen nudum
]
Discussion.
There are several problems with this species. The first and most crucial point is that it is formally a
nomen nudum
. While
Pană (1990)
introduced two new subspecies, she did not describe the species itself. The two subspecies are still validly introduced as species-group names. Secondly, there are many misspellings (lecrenthey, loerenthey, loeerenthey) in the publication. Concerning the
derivatio nominis
section and considering the rules of the ICZN the name should be "
lorentheyi
". According to the
ICZN (1999
, Articles 32.5.1 and 33.2.2), these incorrect original spellings (being either
lapsus calami
or copyist's or printer's errors) would have to be corrected— which is not necessary here, as the name is a
nomen nudum
and formally not available.
A similar case is mentioned by
Welter-Schultes (2012
, p. 382) for the terrestrial snail
Oxychilus draparnaudi
(Beck, 1837)
. This species was neither described nor indicated in the original publication (Beck 1837, p. 6), while the varieties
gallica
and
italica
were indeed indicated with bibliographic references.
Welter-Schultes (2012)
argues that the name
draparnaudi
was made available under ICZN Article 12.1, because it had an indication for a subordinate taxon that was included originally and this article does not demand a description for the nominal taxon. While it is true that the Code states in the glossary that "a taxon encompasses all taxa of lower rank", we would like to point out that the situation is a bit more complicated. According to the Principle of Coordination (Article 46), all taxa in the species group are deemed to be simultaneously established at every possible rank within the species group. Therefore, the names
carinatus
and
nodosus
, originally proposed as subspecies of
lorentheyi
, are speciesgroup taxa too and thus not subordinate taxa of
lorentheyi
in a nomenclatural sense. Hence, their descriptions cannot serve as definition for the undescribed nominal form
lorentheyi
. To do so would imply that one or both are synonymized with
lorentheyi
, which would be a taxonomic but not a nomenclatural act. The situation in
O. draparnaudi
, in contrast, was solved by
ICZN (1955
, Op. 336), which made the name available.
Consequently, the only two taxa available are as follows: