Papilio sjoestedti is correct

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adamcotton
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Papilio sjoestedti is correct

Post by adamcotton »

In the thread 'New Papilio paper' at viewtopic.php?p=6409#p6409

I wrote
adamcotton wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 8:37 am Under ICZN Code article 32.5.2.1 "ö" becomes "oe" only for names formed from German words. Bror Yngve Sjöstedt was Swedish, so his name becomes 'sjostedti' under the Code.
The good news is that Dick Vane-Wright has informed me that despite this the correct spelling for the name is Papilio sjoestedti under prevailing usage article 33.2.3.1, so we can ignore the explanation I gave above.

Smith, Liseki & Vane-Wright (2008 - Journal of Natural History, 42(19–20): 1349–1359) invoked ICZN Code article 33.2.3.1 [‘when an unjustified emendation is in prevailing usage and is attributed to the original author and date it is deemed to be a justified emendation’] in order to confirm the validity of the spelling Papilio sjoestedti Aurivillius, 1908.

Adam.
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Re: Papilio sjoestedti is correct

Post by adamcotton »

Here is the text of the explanation in Smith, Liseki & Vane-Wright (2008):

The name Papilio sjöstedti was established as a species in Aurivillius (1908), with a brief
diagnosis of both the male and female and known distribution, but no discussion of type
numbers, their precise locality or depository. Under the ICZN (1999) Code, Article 12, this is
nevertheless sufficient to constitute a valid publication and the name (suitably corrected, see
below) available. Two years later, Aurivillius (1910) gave a fuller description of sjöstedti as
‘‘new species’’, with photographs, discussion of the original series, and a more detailed
description of the type locality, including altitude and month of capture. It is evident that the
author had expected this work to be published before the folio in ‘‘Seitz’’. The name was
introduced as sjöstedti, retaining the o-umlaut in accordance with Article 20 of the existing
rules of zoological nomenclature (International Congress of Zoology 1905) (in the subsequent
English edition of ‘‘Seitz’’ the name was spelt sjoestedti in the text, but not the index). Under
the current Code, Edition 4 (ICZN 1999) Article 32.5.2.1, diacritic marks should be deleted,
‘‘except that in a name…based upon a German word, the umlaut sign is deleted from a vowel
and the letter ‘e’ is to be inserted after the vowel’’, the article continues ‘‘(if there is any doubt
that the name is based upon a German word, it is to be so treated)’’. Given that both Sjöstedt
and Aurivillius were Swedish, such doubt would not be applicable, so the name should be
emended to sjostedti, with the spelling sjoestedti an unjustified emendation. However, it is this
latter spelling that is in overwhelmingly more common usage. As a crude measure a recent
internet search (using Google2) found 387 ‘‘hits’’ for Papilio sjoestedti; just 18 for Papilio
sjostedti, and in some of these the name is treated as a synonym or actually appears as Papilio
sjoestedti. Most modern key works, including Collins and Morris (1985), Ackery et al. (1995),
d’Abrera (1997), Häuser et al. (2005a) also spell the name sjoestedti.
According to the Code (ICZN 1999) Article 33.2.3.1. ‘‘when an unjustified emendation is in
prevailing usage and is attributed to the original author and date it is deemed to be a justified
emendation’’ (Article 33.3.1. applies a similar consideration to incorrect subsequent spellings).
This clearly pertains in this case: the name Papilio sjoestedti may be deemed to be a justified
emendation and thus the valid name for the taxon.

Adam.
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