Poulin Robert, Presswell Bronwen
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Syst Parasitol. 2024 May 3;101(3):34. doi: 10.1007/s11230-024-10161-4.
Although most Latin binomial names of species are valid, many are eventually unaccepted when they are found to be synonyms of previously described species, or superseded by a new combination when the species they denote are moved to a different genus. What proportion of parasite species names become unaccepted over time, and how long does it take for incorrect names to become unaccepted? Here, we address these questions using a dataset comprising thousands of species names of parasitic helminths from four higher taxa (Acanthocephala, Nematoda, Cestoda, and Trematoda). Overall, among species names proposed in the past two-and-a-half centuries, nearly one-third have since been unaccepted, the most common reason being that they have been superseded by a new combination. A greater proportion of older names (proposed pre-1950) have since been unaccepted compared to names proposed more recently, however most taxonomic acts leading to species names being unaccepted (through either synonymy or reclassification) occurred in the past few decades. Overall, the average longevity of helminth species names that are currently unaccepted was 29 years; although many remained in use for over 100 years, about 50% of the total were invalidated within 20 years of first being proposed. The patterns observed were roughly the same for all four higher helminth taxa considered here. Our results provide a quantitative illustration of the self-correcting nature of parasite taxonomy, and can also help to calibrate future estimates of total parasite biodiversity.
虽然大多数物种的拉丁双名是有效的，但当它们被发现是先前描述物种的同义词，或者当它们所指的物种被转移到不同的属时被新的组合所取代时，许多最终会不被接受。随着时间的推移，寄生虫物种名称中有多大比例会不被接受，不正确的名称需要多长时间才会不被接受？在这里，我们使用一个数据集来解决这些问题，该数据集包含来自四个高级分类群（棘头虫纲、线虫纲、绦虫纲和吸虫纲）的数千种寄生蠕虫的物种名称。总体而言，在过去两个半世纪中提出的物种名称中，近三分之一后来不被接受，最常见的原因是它们被新的组合所取代。与最近提出的名称相比，更古老的名称（1950年以前提出）后来不被接受的比例更高，然而，导致物种名称不被接受（通过同义或重新分类）的大多数分类行为发生在过去几十年。总体而言，目前不被接受的蠕虫物种名称的平均寿命为29年；尽管许多名称仍使用了100多年，但总数的约50%在首次提出后的20年内就失效了。这里考虑的所有四个高级蠕虫分类群观察到的模式大致相同。我们的结果提供了寄生虫分类学自我纠正性质的定量说明，也有助于校准未来对寄生虫总生物多样性的估计。
