Spindasis Change to Cigaritis

[Silverstreak]

Spindasis lohita senama is now called Cigaritis lohita senama (Long-Banded Silverline)

Spindasis syama terana is now called Cigaritis syama terana (Club Silverline )

Ref:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindasis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigaritis

[teotp]

All the references quoted are from early 90s and 2003 in posted Wikipedia. I don't read any information about the changes from ICZN or any systematic journals. Eliot (2006) also not mention in his C&P 4 update.

Why it switch from Spindasis to Cigaritis?

Teo T P

[Silverstreak]

Thiam Peng,

Khew and myself were pointed to these reference on Butterflies of Singapore Facebook by Keith or Roger ----- my memory is failing me .

The more recent references are these:

Bouyer, T., 2011: Description de nouveaux Cigaritis (Spindasis) congolais et tanzaniens (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Étude sur les Lycaenidae: note no. 9. Entomologia Africana 16 (1): 35-38.
Bouyer, T., 2012: Description d'une nouvelle espèce africaine de Cigaritis Donzel, 1847 (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Entomologia Africana 17 (1): 2-4.

From:

http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cigaritis

[Painted Jezebel]

I seem to recall asking about this change back to Cigaritis (previously used only for African species) a while back (some time after 2008), though a search of this name on this site did not bring up my question. Anyhow, I changed all my species names at least 3 years ago.

[Commander]

Khew and myself were pointed to these reference on Butterflies of Singapore Facebook by Keith or Roger ----- my memory is failing me .

It was Roger Kendrick who mentioned it.

Acceptance of changes in the scientific world depends a lot on the main community in the area of specialisation. Unlike common English names, which can be coined by amateurs and laymen like us, the taxonomic name changes are usually via a refereed journal paper and tabled at major scientific conventions for acceptance.

In the past, the British used to be at the epicentre of such things, but in recent years, their influence is less obvious.

The two recent papers that Sunny referred to, feature South African fauna. I believe the author is French and the paper is presented in French from the looks of the synopsis.

Perhaps Teo can share with us his experience as to what constitutes acceptance of Lepidoptera name changes. The Natural History Museum site also lists quite a few like the change from Pathysa back to Graphium for the Five Bar Swordtail. But elsewhere, changes are still not made.

It would also appear that authors of books tend to get a slight priority in terms of acceptance and being quoted, but again, acceptance by the specialist community also depends on the country of origin and the authors themselves.

Digital resources do have some level of acceptance as it is the norm for such searches these days, but these tend to get a slightly lower level of credibility as far as the purist scientific community is concerned.

Even in recent years, different authors are divided when it comes to the high-level family/subfamily naming convention. There are authors who still stand by the old 9-family naming for our local butts, whilst others are using the 5-family convention.

And this will go on and on...

The silver lining about Leps is that changes are less frequent compared to the botanical world.

[Painted Jezebel]

Cigaritis seems to be the accepted name at the moment, at least from 2008, see K Saito & Y Seki (2008), Nakamura & Wakahara (2008) and Yutaka's website.

Spindasis is shown as a junior synonym of Cigaritis. Nevertheless, the final word should be down, as Teo says, to ICZN.

[atronox]

Similar case with Deudorix and Virachola

I feel that they should still be kept separate due to anatomical differences.

[teotp]

Please take a look under the website of International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature (iczn.org) and their online publications - Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature (BZN). You will understand why I said I didn't encountered any changes from Spindasis to Cigaritis. Apprently Cigaritis was used for the African species and the Oriental species under the genus Spindasis although they are synonym* (D'Abrera, 2005).

Any conservation of animal scientific name will have to propose to ICZN, members of the commission have to comment on the case and give a final approval to the case submitted regardless of any proposed scientific name by anybody and publications from any country. An example is the application by Yokochi to conserve the name coelebs (e.g. Tanaecia coelebs) but was rejected by ICZN, and the species name remained as T. heringi (please refer to Eliot's C&P 4 update page 11, para 5 or MNJ volume 59: 11, para 5, 2006). You will also see many cases are rejected by the ICZN on BZN when you log onto the website.

May be I overlooked during my screening of the BZN. Please point that to me if I missed the case.

Teo T P

*Note: Information from the website: Weidenhoffer & Bozano (2007) treated Spindasis as subgenus of Cigaritis, this may be the reason Bouyer (2011) stated in the Entomologia Africana as Cigaritis(Spindasis) congolais.

[Psyche]

ICZN mainly governs the valid name of a taxon irrespective of where it is placed in a genus, family, etc.

In the case of T. heringi, it is a matter of the taxonomic name(taxon) heringi having priority over taxon coelebs.

ICZN refrains from infringing on taxonomic judgements.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/

Every taxonomist have the liberty & the right to revise or reclassify any taxa as they see fit , but whether this is accepted by his peers is another thing.
If accepted they will include the new classification in their future publications. Otherwise it will die a natural death.

For example, Tsukada 1991 have separated the Malayan Lexias cyanipardus sandakana as Lexias bangkana johorensis, with a new sp. & ssp names, but Eliot feels there is little justification for this. (MNJ vol54 June 2000 Pt 2)
Yutaka have of course follows his compatriot & his list include both L.cyanipardus & bangkana as separate species.
http://yutaka.it-n.jp/lyci.html

TL Seow

[teotp]

It is a good practice to use the first published name as a valid name of a species and others being regarded as synonyms. Otherwise different authors from countries proposed and published their own names for a same species will be a big mess for researchers and taxonomists.

Teo T P