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It seems like a number of formal references use "species epithet" - is there a source for this being informal and "specific name" being the preferred term ?
Shyamal (
talk)
13:04, 17 April 2010 (UTC)reply
"Species epithet" is indeed another correct way of referring to the specific name. I have included it in the first intro sentence.
Invertzoo (
talk)
16:01, 2 January 2011 (UTC)reply
Disputed
Contrary to what is said above, "species epithet" is not "another correct way" of referring to the specific name. In botany, it is the only correct way. The species name consists of the genus name + the specific epithet. This is very clearly stated in the Code.
Article 23.1: "The name of a species is a binary combination consisting of the name of the genus followed by a single specific epithet". The article is seriously wrong as regards botany; I don't know about zoology.
Peter coxhead (
talk)
06:23, 8 June 2011 (UTC)reply
Perhaps a
split is in order for this article, with titles
Specific name (botany) and
Specific name (zoology) (if there is enough variance between the two). Or just make the article into two separate over-arching sections (one for each), having subsections where appropriate. I'm not sure the article can be said to be 'inaccurate', so much as substantially incomplete - I'd even go as far as to say misleading, without covering botany. I would write it/them myself, but lack the necessary expertise.
Hamamelis (
talk)
09:26, 8 June 2011 (UTC)reply
The only mention of botany is relegated to a note: 'Note that in botanical nomenclature, "name" always refers to the whole name (of a species or otherwise), whereas in zoological nomenclature it can refer to either part of the binomen.' Everything else seems to apply fairly strictly to zoology, yet is written as though it covers all.
Hamamelis (
talk)
09:36, 8 June 2011 (UTC)reply
I think that this is the right way forward (just as we now have
Infraspecific name (botany)). A good project would be to work on getting correct, consistent and well-referenced articles on botanical and zoological nomenclature separately, and then construct some overview articles based on now reliable sources. At present it looks as though there are some articles in this broad area which were written by zoologists with a nod to botany, and some the other way round.
"I would write it/them myself, but lack the necessary expertise." I used to think this, but got so annoyed by a couple of articles that I launched in anyway. Most of the ICBN is actually much easier to understand than it at first looks! See
Infraspecific name (botany) which I've just recently revised; no expert has yet objected...
Peter coxhead (
talk)
10:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)reply
Actually on looking again at the article, I think I'll be
WP:BOLD and move it to "Specific name (zoology)", since it is actually almost all about zoology and may well be correct in that regard.
Peter coxhead (
talk)
10:06, 8 June 2011 (UTC)reply