Typical types – a swan song? Observations on chironomids in the Linnean collections, and corresponding general considerations

Martin Spies

doi:10.5324/cjcr.v0i24.1393

Abstract

At the 18th International Symposium on Chironomidae in Trondheim, Norway, this past July I gave a short presentation to draw attention to an online resource that has become available recently. On webpages provided by the Linnean Society of London, under http://www.linnean-online.org/view/insects/tipula.html, a list of electronic links can be found which use scientific species names made available by Linnaeus in original combination with the genus name Tipula Linnaeus. Each link leads to a series of digital images of pinned adult specimens still preserved in the Linnean collections under the corresponding species name.

Highlights

At the 18th International Symposium on Chironomidae in Trondheim, Norway, this past July I gave a short presentation to draw attention to an online resource that has become available recently
On webpages provided by the Linnean Society of London, under http://www.linnean-online.org/view/insects/tipula.html, a list of electronic links can be found which use scientific species names made available by Linnaeus in original combination with the genus name Tipula Linnaeus
Each link leads to a series of digital images of pinned adult specimens still preserved in the Linnean collections under the corresponding species name

Summary

Introduction

At the 18th International Symposium on Chironomidae in Trondheim, Norway, this past July I gave a short presentation to draw attention to an online resource that has become available recently. It is quite doubtful that there has been any “prevailing usage” (ICZN 1999) of the name C. plumosus, and any corresponding body of reliable biological data, that is definable and significant enough so that it could or should be protected in place of original facts such as the taxonomic identity of the type material On the contrary, it seems that recognizing the Linnean specimens as syntypes would not decrease but even increase stability of nomenclature and quality of the corresponding dataset, by providing a basis for reproducible species identifications in all life stages, where previously only larvae could be assigned to a ‘cytospecies’, the name for which has not been tied to any reproducible voucher. This topic would be one for a separate discussion (see below) beyond the scope of the present paper

Evidence versus hearsay

Towards a discussion