Abstract
A new species of Discodorididae is described from the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Panama. It is named using a modified version of the epithet-based nomenclature proposed by Url Lanham 40 years ago. The species described here can be placed confidently in the clade Discodorididae, but not in any of its subclades (traditionally taxa of genus rank). The unique, epithet-based name of the species is “aliciae Dayrat, 2005”. The combination Discodorididae aliciae may also be used, once the unique, epithet-based name has been cited. Discodorididae aliciae is an example of how a new species of Discodorididae could be named in the context of phylogenetic nomenclature. I argue that epithet-based species names and their combinations with clade addresses should be very appealing to people who think phylogenetically. I also discuss two advantages of such combinations: first, they should be more stable than Linnaean binomials, which often change for arbitrary (e.g. non-phylogenetic) reasons; second, they should help taxonomists avoid creating multiple names for the same species.
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