Eggspots Elsewhere - Welt der Fische / World of Fishes

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peer review is supposed to be anonymous, and the fact that in this case it clearly was not suggests to me that the journal’s peer-review policy was at best not as strict as desirable. Retro-active or not? SCHRAML asks whether the setting of a date from which a new rule applies is truly intended to be retro-active, ie affecting names previously regarded as valid under the previous Code. The answer is, quite simply, YES! The introduction to the 1985 Code makes this quite clear: “(6) The Code provides guidance for zoologists needing to establish new names, and rules to determine whether any name, previously proposed, is available and with what priority; whether the name requires amendment for its correct use……” (my bold type). From this it is quite clear that the Code is intended to be retro-active. The latest (2004) edition of the Code caused some major retroactive changes to names, most notably the proper way to deal with umlauted u (ü) in names based on proper names, such that u or ue is now correct depending on a cut-off date, and names after that date need to be corrected where they do not conform. Even more far-reaching is the requirement by the ICZN for the dates of names to be the date when the paper appeared in print. In days of yore, papers, for example those of the Zoological Society of London, were frequently read to a meeting and only printed later, and the date of the reading was taken as the date of the paper. Not any more! It now has to be the ACTUAL date of publication, and this has caused huge confusion. For example, REGAN’s revision of Lake Malawi cichlids, cited in much of the literature and a host of names as REGAN, 1921, is now REGAN, 1922. SCHRAML has questioned the relationship between these retro-active rules and stability in nomenclature, one of the most important objectives of the Code. But in fact it’s quite simple. Although the Code is designed to be absolutely explicit and unambiguous in its wording in order that the INTENTION of the rule is fulfilled, sometimes this objective is not achieved and clarification of a rule is required, by rewording, and where the old, inadequate rule has caused problems, then to put these right the new rule must be retro-active. Nowadays we write specific names with a lower case letter – greshakei – and hyphens aren’t allowed, but it wasn’t always thus, many names have been corrected retro-actively, even before the first edition of the Code was published in 1961. Was that wrong too? We should, perhaps, consider that the fundamental date of 1st January 1758, from which modern taxonomy is taken to begin, was not selected at that time but much later, and the decision taken that – retroactively – all names dating from before that date would be disregarded. Fall-out There has been a certain amount of unfortunate “fall-out” linked to the dispute, in part a function of our electronic age. I have been told by a number of authors, who believe Metriaclima to be the correct name, that they have been obliged to use Maylandia in order to have their work published, as the editors of some 44 BAILEY: the case for Metriaclima
scientific journals and some peer-reviewers are stating that Metriaclima is invalid because Fishbase or some noted taxonomist has plumped for Maylandia. One thing must be made clear – no organisation such as Fishbase, no institution, and no individual such as an editor or peer-reviewer has the right to pre-empt the role of the ICZN in ruling on nomenclatural disputes. I can only deplore such attempts to impose a personal, editorial, or institutional viewpoint on the freedom of every author to decide for him- or herself which name to follow until a ruling is made by the ICZN. In this regard I cannot commend too highly the editorial policy of eggspots in allowing authors their rightful freedom of taxonomic expression. References: CONDÉ, B. &. GÉRY, J. (1999): Maylandia MEYER ET FOERSTER, 1984, un nom générique disponible (Teleostei, Perciformes, Cichlidae). Revue française d'Aquariologie Herpetologie, 26 (1-2): 21-22. INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE (ICZN) (1985): International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 3rd edition. INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE (ICZN) (2004): International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th edition. KONINGS, A. (2005): Maylandia or Metriaclima, ...again! The Cichlid Room Companion: http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=355 KONINGS, A. F. & STAUFFER, J.R. JR. (2006): Revised diagnosis of Metriaclima with description of a new species (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi National Park, Africa. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 17 (3): 233-246. KULLANDER, S. O. (1999): Diskussionsbeitrag für Cichlid-L. MEYER, M. K. & FOERSTER, W. (1984): Un nouveau Pseudotropheus du lac Malawi avec des remarques sur le complexe Pseudotropheus- Melanochromis (Pisces, Perciformes, Cichlidae). Revue française d'Aquariologie Herpetologie, 10 (4) [1983]: 107-112. SCHRAML, E. (2009): Maylandia oder Metriaclima - immer noch nicht geklärt? eggspots, 2: 5-15. STAUFFER, J. R., JR. , BOWERS, N. J., KELLOGG, K. A. & MCKAYE, K. R. (1997): A revision of the blue-black Pseudotropheus zebra (Teleostei: Cichlidae) complex from Lake Malawi, Africa, with a description of a new genus and ten new species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 148: 189-230. TREWAVAS, E. (1984): Nouvel examen des genres et sous-genres du complexe Pseudotropheus-Melanochromis du lac Malawi. Revue française d'Aquariologie Herpetologie, 10 (4): 97-106. eggspots No. 4 45
Page 1 and 2: In search of haplochromines in Egyp
Page 3 and 4: Editorial In this issue of eggspots
Page 5 and 6: The story behind my trip to Egypt w
Page 7 and 8: Everywhere in Egypt we encountered
Page 9 and 10: The easiest place to find these fis
Page 11 and 12: Two females of Haplochromis sp. “
Page 13 and 14: Threatening male Haplochromis desfo
Page 15 and 16: Details of a flank scale of H. desf
Page 17 and 18: section doesn’t continue from a p
Page 19 and 20: Above: First gill arch of H. flavii
Page 21 and 22: Above: The teeth have been exposed
Page 23 and 24: investigate whether the change in t
Page 25 and 26: One of the German terms for cichlid
Page 27 and 28: Katonga is the name of a river in U
Page 29 and 30: Anyone who has had anything to do w
Page 31 and 32: Dissolved through lack of interest!
Page 33 and 34: In February 2006 I finally again sa
Page 35 and 36: enqui ries as to the provenance of
Page 37 and 38: second, as well as the holotype of
Page 39 and 40: In an earlier issue of eggspots (no
Page 41 and 42: of “differentiate” would render
Page 43: KULLANDER (1999): laudably - and ra
Page 47 and 48: 19 (3) 2010: - VAN HEUSDEN, H.: Ort

Eggspots Elsewhere - Welt der Fische / World of Fishes

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