Final one tonight!

[nightshade]

Thank you I appreciate the information,still learning!

[Paul mabbott]

Henry has given the main reason why names change (splitting of genera) but there are other reasons. These include historical priority: even though a genus (species &c) has been known by a name for many years, if someone discovers an earlier use of another name then that takes priority and everyone else has to change! Another reason is to avoid having two taxa with the same name - if it's discovered that the same name has been given to two animals then the last named one has to be changed. Others rules include mis-spelling at some stage. *If* you're really interested in nomenclatural rules you could look at http://www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp ....

Henry has a good point about the numbers of people involved: almost every bird and butterfly species has its own genus whereas amongst beetles there are genera with hundreds of species ....

Originally Posted by henrya

..... opinions change on how species are related. Presumably somebody has taken a close look at the longhorn beetles and decided that Strangalia maculata is sufficiently different from the other species of Strangalia to warrant it being put into a separate genus. Further research, perhaps using DNA analysis, may yet lead to it being moved from Rutpela to Trupela!
As for frequency of changes, that will depend on how many people are working on the particular group - but changing the name may well provoke a spurt of further study from those who perhaps disagree with the changes.
Few species are immune to having their names changed - Blue Tit is now Cyanistes caeruleus and Willow Tit is now Poecile montanus, for example.
henrya

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by henrya

Further research, perhaps using DNA analysis, may yet lead to it being moved from Rutpela to Trupela! henrya

Oh dear not more anagram synonyms! It was bad enough when they changed around some of the genus names for some of the Cudweeds. Filago, Logfia, Ifloga...

[ian_g]

Oh dear indeed, I hadn't realised that genus names have been altered like that. It's almost as shocking as when a new brewery buys a pub and then gives it a 'trendy' name when in actual fact, everyone was happy with the 'Pig and Whsitle'.

Wonder how long it'll be before they start altering the word Genus? A few suggestions might be Snuge, Gnuse or Egsun

Ian G

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by ian_g

Wonder how long it'll be before they start altering the word Genus? A few suggestions might be Snuge, Gnuse or Egsun

Ian G

My vote goes to Snuge

[henrya]

Quote
Oh dear indeed, I hadn't realised that genus names have been altered like that. It's almost as shocking as when a new brewery buys a pub and then gives it a 'trendy' name when in actual fact, everyone was happy with the 'Pig and Whsitle'.
Endquote

It's not quite like that. Someone finds that a species is sufficiently different (in his opinion, at least) to warrant being in a new genus. Not much wrong with that, but I think it shows a distinct lack of imagination when the new genus is called Rutpela (an anagram of the existing genus Leptura). I'd be much happier with something like Pseudoleptura or Neoleptura if one wanted to show the likely close relationships. As far as I know, Trupela doesn't exist (yet), it was just a guess on my part!

henrya

[ian_g]

Ahhh... I'm with you now. Sorry for sounding slightly puerile

My guess is Alerupt then, don't know why, just like sound of it

Ian G

[henrya]

Quote
My guess is Alerupt then, don't know why, just like sound of it
Endquote

I think Alerupt would be a bit of a breakthrough - I don't know of any British genus names ending in 't'! There may be a rule about it! But maybe we should have a sweepstake (and that'll mean that those species stay stable and unchanged for ages).

henrya