Conspectus cobitidum - Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

others Grigorii and Vladimir Grumm-Grzhimaylo)
or for men and women together (e.g, potaninorum,
of Grigorii Potanin and Aleksandra Potanina,
baluchiorum, of the inhabitants of
Balochistan).
1.1.1.1. Exception: names of men ending in -a may
be considered Latinized and become -ae (e.g.
vinciguerrae, of Vinciguerra).
1.1.1.2. If the name ends with -i, the ending is -ii
(e.g. choii, of Choi; modiglianii, of Modigliani).
1.1.1.3. Names may be formed by adding the endings
-i, -ae, etc. to the name or to the stem of
the name. Example: agassizi is based on Agassiz
and agassii is based on the stem agassi-
[this corresponds with the pronunciation, since
the final -z in Agassiz is not pronounced in
French in the area of Switzerland where he was
born].
1.1.2. If the name is based on a Latin name, or the
Latinized form of a modern name, the name is
formed of the Latin root and the endings as above
(often becomes -ii, -is, -iorum, -iarum). Examples:
cuvieri is based on Cuvier's name, cuvierii
is based on the Latinized form Cuvierius.
1.2. Nouns in apposition are indeclinable (but the Code
recommends that species-group names should not be
created as personal names in apposition as this may
lead to confusion with the author of the name).
1.3. Adjectives formed on a personal name are declined
to agree in gender with the genus name. Examples:
bleekerianus, -a, -um (P. Bleeker; means Bleekerian),
pavianus, -a, -um (A. Pavie).
2. Names based on geographical names. Same rules as
names based on personal names (see 1).
2.1. If the name is in the genitive case, it is indeclinable.
Examples: italiae (of Italy), cyri (of Cyrus, the Latin
name of Kura River).
2.2. If the name is in apposition, it is indeclinable: Examples:
Nemacheilus marang (Marang loach; for
Marang karst).
2.3. If the name is an adjective, it is declined to agree in
gender with the genus name. The most common cases
are:
2.3.1. names based on classical and modern Latin adjectives.
Examples: hispanicus, -a, -um (Hispanic,
Spanish), helveticus, -a, -um (Helvetian,
Swiss), sumatranus, -a, -um (Sumatran);
2.3.2. names based on modern place names with the
addition of the ending -ensis, -ensis, -ense). Example:
yunnanensis, -is, -e.
2.3.2.1. The final letter(s) can be omitted, or a
letter can be added (usually to smoothen pronunciation).
Examples: borneensis instead of
borneoensis (Bornean), sumatrensis instead of
sumatraensis (Sumatran; but sumatranus
would be preferable), tientainensis instead of
tientaiensis (of Tientai).
THE RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 2012
9
3. Latin adjectives. Names that are Latin adjectives or participles,
or end with Latin adjectives or participles, are declined
to agree in gender with the name of the genus. (For
nomenclature purposes, only the nominative case is relevant;
Latin has five more cases, but they are irrelevant here).
3.1. The most common declinable endings are:
3.1.1. -us, -a, -um. Examples: maculatus, maculata,
maculatum (spotted), barbatus, barbata, barbatum
(bearded);
3.1.2. -is, is, -e. Examples: lateralis, lateralis, laterale
(lateral); meridionalis, meridionalis, meridionale
(southern);
3.1.3. -ger, -gra, grum. Example: niger, nigra, nigrum
(black);
3.1.4. -ger, -gera, -gerum. Example: filiger, filigera,
filigerum (that carries a filament);
3.1.5. -fer, -fera, -ferum. Example: aurifer, aurifera,
auriferum (that carries or contains gold).
3.2. When declined, some adjectives are identical in the
three genders in the nominative case. They are labelled
here as indeclinable. Examples: elegans (nice),
splendens (brilliant, shining), pallens (pale). Some
common endings of indeclinable adjectives are:
3.2.1. adjectives ending in -oides (sometimes -ides).
Examples: siluroides (silurus-like), elongatoides
(like [Cobitis] elongata), misgurnoides (misgurnus-like),
salmonides (salmon-like);
3.2.2. adjectives ending in -color. Examples: discolor
(differently coloured), unicolor (of a single
colour).
3.3. Participles (verbs in the conjugation tense ending in
-ing in English) usually end in -ens or -ans and are
indeclinable in the nominative case. Examples: alternans
(alternating), ridens (smiling).
3.4. If an adjective has been erroneously declined in
cases other than nominative it is treated as a noun in
apposition. Example: albicoloris (should have been
albicolor, indeclinable).
4. Latin nouns. Names that are Latin or Latinized nouns are
indeclinable. Examples: Schistura cataracta (cataract), Ellopostoma
mystax (mustache).
5. Compound names (noun-phrases)
5.1. A compound name made of two nouns is a noun and
indeclinable (examples: ophiolepis, from ophius,
snake, and lepis, scale, with snake scales; bellibarus,
from the incorrectly Latinized English nouns belly
and bar, for the six bars on the belly); names made of
an adjective and a noun are also nouns and indeclinable
(example: alticorpus, from altus, high, and corpus,
body, with high body; flavicauda, from flavus,
yellow, and cauda, tail, with yellow tail).
5.2. If a compound name ends with a non-Latin word, it
is indeclinable. This applies to all languages. Some
Greek words are used as ending of compound names.
The Code makes a distinction between Greek words
and Latinized Greek words. For example kephale is
a Greek word (meaning head) while cephalus is Latinized
Greek; oura is a Greek word (meaning tail)