In message , Mike Lyle
writes
Jake wrote:
On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 20:07:26 +0100 (BST), wrote:
In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
I've come across a file listing name changes in the 3rd edition of
Stace's New Flora of the British Isles, compared with some early
list of the British flora.
Highlights are
Oh, God! The mad taxonomists strike again :-(
Several of the changes look like simple reversals of earlier changes
by the same mad taxonomists.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Look on the bright side, at least leylandii will now be a bit shorter
;-))
I'd love to know why the NZ flatworm was changed to /Arthurdendyus/: I
so much want to believe it was a discreet homage to the reluctant
galactic hitch-hiker, but it's not really likely.
The relevant paper seems to be H.D. Jones, A new genus and species of
terrestrial planarian (Platyhelminthes; Tricladida; Terricola) from
Scotland, and an emendation of the genus Artioposthia, Journal of
Natural History 33(3): 387-394 (1999)
Since it's paywalled I can't confirm this directly, but Google tells me
that it was "Named in honour of Arthur Dendy for his great contributions
to the study of land flatworms". (Search for Arthur Dendy
Arthurdendyus.) The authority for Artioposthia triangulatus was a Dendy,
which I would assume was the same person.
You'd need to read to paper to find out why Artioposthia was split, as
opposed to why the new generic name was selected.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley