Untitled

BOUCHET&ROCROI
ABSTRACT
About 2,400 names at the rank of subtribe, tribe, subfamily, family and superfamily have
been proposed for Recent and fossil gastropods. All names are listed in a nomenclátor
giving full bibliographical reference, date of publication, type genus, and their nomenclatura!
availability and validity under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Another 730 names, established for categories above the family-group, and not regulated
by the Code, are listed separately. A working classification attempts to reconcile recent
advances in the phylogeny of the Gastropoda, using unranked clades above superfami-
lies, and the more traditional approach, using hierarchical ranking below superfamily. Altogether,
the classification recognizes as valid a total of 61 1 families, of which 202 are known
exclusively as fossils and 409 occur in the Recent with or without a fossil record. The
nomenclátor and classification will be updated in forthcoming editions to be published
electronically.
INTRODUCTION
Molluscan taxonomists routinely use a number
of species- and genus-level nomenclators
that either are shared with the rest of zoology
(Sherborn 1902, 1922-1932; Neave 1939-
1 950, continued by Edwards at al. 1 966-1 996)
or are specific to the Mollusca (Ruhoff 1 980).
Regrettably, however, there is no universal
nomenclátor of molluscan family-group
names, and as a consequence of the difficulty
in establishing their authors and dates, taxonomists
do not always cite them in classifications.
Even when these are cited, a proper
bibliographical reference is often lacking. This,
in addition to an incomplete understanding or
application of the rules of nomenclature above
genus level, contributes to nomenclatural
unstability. The purpose of the present paper
is to provide accurate bibliographical and nomenclatural
data for gastropod family-group
names. The paper is organized in two parts:
Part 1 is a nomenclátor of 2,400 names that
have been proposed for Recent and fossil
gastropods at the rank of subtribe, tribe, subfamily,
family and superfamily; Part 2 places
these names in a classification. In the currently
very active phase of réévaluation of the phylogeny
of the gastropods, the classification is
bound to become outdated. It will also elicit
controversy, as different taxonomists have different
approaches to classification. However,
a mere alphabetical listing of gastropod fam-
ily-group names would be insufficient to bring
to the attention of systematists the names they
need to consider when they are reassessing
the classification of selected parts of the Gas-
tropoda. Although Part 2 attempts to reflect
the current state-of-the-art of gastropod classification,
it should therefore essentially be
viewed as a guide to nomenclaturally available
names, as the purpose of this paper is
not to address the debate on classification
methodologies or hierarchical vs non-hierar-
chical classifications. Conversely, we hope that
the nomenclatural part has the potential to
remain a reference source for a longer time,
as it will become outdated mainly by newly
established names.
The present publication is the result of bib-
liographical work started in 1 987 to compile a
nomenclátor of supraspecific names covering
all molluscan taxa. Recent and fossil, other
than Cephalopoda. All primary literature has
been checked and copied from the original
sources (Bouchet & Rocroi 1992). A total of
25,000 genus-group (believed to be 97% complete),
3,700 family-group names, and 1,150
names above the family-group (both believed
to be more than 99% complete) have been
captured. The result is a loose-leaf paper version
and an electronic database. The present
paper reports on our results on the
supraspecific names that have been proposed
for the Gastropoda, which alone account for
70% of the names in our nomenclátor.
The International Code on Zoological Nomenclature
(4"' edition) has set the conditions
for the approval of a "List of Available Names"
(Art. 79). Names entered in the List are
deemed to have the date, availability, and
other nomenclatural attributes given in the List.
In addition, the List would be closed, that is
names not entered in the List would be unavailable
under the Code. The List would be
approved in parts, and gastropod family-group
names could constitute one such "Part of the
List". We encourage users of the present pub-
lication to notify us with any omission and error
they would notice, so that the present
nomenclátor, after amendments and corrections,
could be submitted to ICZN to become
an official Part of the List of Available Names
in Zoology.