Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Nomenclatorial slopiness (3) - a positive note

Entering all of Seifert's Cardiocondyla revision is like day and night to the publication I critized earlier. Reading through the former is very easy, and most of the spelling of the original combinations is actually following the original citation. Also, it is very clear, what nomenclatorial action is being taken.

Both Seifert's and Alex Wild's revision of Linepithema (including the notorious Argentine ant) include also a list of citation of the species by various authors which is opening yet another cattle of fish: taxonomic concepts.

Ubio is currently the leader in collecting all species names ever published, from the original scientific - they get from specific namer servers - to identifications used in non-taxonomic works to vernacular names, which are especially important in feathery and fury taxa. If we really do want to build up a global digital library of our legacy data (such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library might provide), then we need also to make sure, that we list these taxonomic concepts once we know the proper name of the voucher specimens used in earlier work. Only this way (through the experts opinion) crosswalks using species names can be produced. So, please make sure you add them in your systematics work!

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