Comments on new names and nomenclatural acts of amphibians and non-avian sauropsids established by Garsault 1764 and Laurenti 1768 (response to Dubois & Bour 2010)

Abstract

This is a response to a recent work published by Dubois & Bour (2010, Zootaxa 2447: 1-52) on the nomenclatural status of some taxa established by Garsault (1764) and Laurenti (1768). We have a substantially deviating interpretation of the ICZN Code concerning the involved names and nomenclatural acts. We see no major problem in regarding most of Laurenti's (1768) species-group names that were published as separate words ("technically trinominal names") as consistent with the Principle of Binominal Nomenclature. Presence or absence of a hyphen in a compound specific name is not a criterion for binominality, instead the grammatical relationships of the separate words have to be analysed for eventually forming a "single entity" as demanded by Art. 11.9.5. Dubois & Bour (2010) proposed a new procedure for the treatment of early genus-group names which were originally established without species included. We do not think this proposal is in accordance with the ICZN Code, and recommend to use the names Bufo, Salamandra, Scincus and Vipera in the widely accepted sense and simply shift authority and date of these four names from Laurenti (1768) to Garsault (1764). In two cases we regard nomenclautural acts published by Dubois & Bour (2010) as risky. The widely used names Hyla Laurenti, 1768 (Amphibia) and Natrix Laurenti, 1768 (Squamata) are threatened because Dubois & Bour (2010) validly and unnecessarily fixed type species for the senior synonyms Ranetta Garsault, 1764 and Serpens Garsault, 1764, and at the same occasion missed to protect Hyla and Natrix effectively under Art. 23.9.2. They intended to protect the names under Art. 23.9.1.2, but instead of meeting the requirement to "give evidence" that the conditions were met, they gave only indirect references to general bibliographical lists. We regard this as ineffective as would be a general reference to the Zoological Record or any other bibiographical work. These two important generic names should be protected effectively under Art. 23.9.2, by citing 25 publications and not only one, before someone uses the names Ranetta and Serpens at one occasion deliberately or undeliberately in a current classification, and suppressing them validly under Art. 23.9.2 would not be possible any more. The same applies to Triturus cristatus (Laurenti, 1768) (Amphibia: Salamandridae) and Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768) (Squamata: Lacertidae).