Abstract
Deprá (2025) raises an important and timely concern regarding the accumulation of formally available zoological names that lack workable diagnoses, a phenomenon he terms “the Kaiserian shortfall”. Few practicing taxonomists would dispute that poorly diagnosed taxa impose substantial costs on systematic research, contributing to instability, redundancy, and the repeated re-examination of material that should already be taxonomically resolved. On this central point, there is a broad agreement: taxa that cannot be reliably recognized undermine the scientific and practical goals of taxonomy (Winston 1999).
References
- Anonymous [International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature] (1999). • International code of zoological nomenclature. ‘Fourth edition’. London (International Trust for zoological Nomenclature): i–xxix + 1–306.
- Blake, J. A. (2009). • Redescription of Capitella capitata (Fabricius) from West Greenland and designation of a neotype (Polychaeta: Capitellidae). Zoosymposia, 2: 55‒80. <https://doi.org/10.11646/zoosymposia.2.1.7>.
- Deprá, G. de C. (2025). • The “Kaiserian shortfall”, fishes, and the regulation of taxonomy by the Code. Bionomina, 43: 78‒91. <https://doi.org/10.11646/bionomina.43.3.4>.
- Fabricius, O. (1780). • Fauna groenlandica, systematice sistens animalia Groenlandiae occidentalis hactenus indagata, quoad nomen specificium, triviale, vernaculumque, synonyma auctorum plurimum, descriptionem, locum, victum, generationem, mores, usum, capturamque singuli, prout detegendi occasio fuit, maximaque parte secundum proprias observationes. Hafniae & Lipsiae (Ioannis Gottlob Rothe): i‒xvi + 1‒452, 1 pl. <https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.13489>.
- Grassle, J. P. & Grassle, J. F. (1976). • Sibling species in the marine pollution indicator Capitella (Polychaeta). Science, 192: 567‒569. <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1257794>.
- Hutchings, P., & Kupriyanova, E. (2018). • Cosmopolitan polychaetes – fact or fiction? Personal and historical perspectives. Invertebrate Systematics, 32: 1‒9. <https://doi.org/10.1071/IS17035>.
- Knowlton, N. (2000). • Molecular genetic analyses of species boundaries in the sea. Hydrobiologia, 420: 73‒90. <https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003933603879>.
- Parker, C. T., Tindall, B. J. & Garrity, G. M. (2019). • International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. International Journal of systematic and evolutionary Microbiology, 69: S1‒S111. <https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.000778>.
- Queiroz, K. de (2007). • Species concepts and species delimitation. Systematic Biology, 56: 879‒886. <https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150701701083>.
- Winston, J. E. (1999). • Describing species: practical taxonomic procedure for biologists. New York (Columbia University Press): i‒xx + 1‒518.
- Wüster, W., Thomson, S. A., O’Shea, M. & Kaiser, H. (2021). • Confronting taxonomic vandalism in biology: conscientious community self-organization can preserve nomenclatural stability. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 133 (3): 645–670. <https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blab009>.