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Morpho

Number: 18658.0
In Author: Illiger
Author: Fabricius
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Morpho
Journal: Mag. Insektenk.
Year: 1807
Homonym Count: 2.0
Page: 280
Ref Id: 1782.0
Series: (Illiger)
Status: Available name
Subfamily: Morphinae
Subtribe: Morphina
Superfamily: Papilionoidea
Tribe: Morphini
Volume: 5
Type Country: See BHL scanned Type-species page
Type Des Ref Id: 6456.0
Type Des: by subsequent designation by
Type Des Author: Westwood
Type Des Year: 1851
Type Des In: in
Type Des In Author: Doubleday
Type Des Journal: Gen. diurn. Lep.
Type Des Title: The genera of diurnal Lepidoptera / by E. Doubleday and J.O. Westwood ; illustrated with plates by W.C. Hewitson / London
Type Des Part: (2)
Type Des Page: 341
Type Des Bhl Page: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/49324#page/96/mode/2up
Type Sp Author: Linnaeus
Type Sp Bhl Page: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/10277#page/484/mode/2up
Type Sp Journal: Systema Naturae
Type Sp Page: 463
Type Sp Series: (Edn 10)
Type Sp Volume: 1
Type Sp Year: 1758
Type Sp Ref Id: 3527.0
Type Sp Genus: Papilio
Type Sp: achilles
Memo Links: ['http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127039', 'http://butterfliesofamerica.com/L/t/Morpho_a.htm', 'http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/gbn/Lamas_Genera_04ii08.xls', 'http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/search?searchTerm=MORPHO', 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphalidae']
Memo: Hemming (1967) stated:- The exact date of publication in 1807 of the name Morpho and other Fabrician names published in volume 6 of the Mag. f. Insektenk. is not known, but the discovery in 1934 of an anonymous review of the first 34 of the plates in Hübner's Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge written by Illiger and published in the Allgem. lit. Ztg, Halle [Jena] (: 1177-1181 of the second section of the volume for 1807) issued on 19th December 1807 clearly established the fact that the paper containing the Fabrician names referred to above had already been published by that date. Among the plates of Hübner's Sammlung then reviewed by Illiger was plate [79], the plate on the legend of which Hübner first employed the generic name Potamis (after his abortive attempt to do so in the Tentamen of 1806, a leaflet which has been suppressed by the Commission for nomenclatorial purposes in its Opinion 97). Unluckily, the genus Potamis so introduced by Hübner in the Sammlung in 1807 has as its type-species the nominal species Potamis leonte, which specialists are agreed represents the same taxon as that represented by Papilio achilles Linnaeus, 1758. Thus, the generic names Morpho Fabricius, 1807, and Potamis Hübner, 1807, were synonyms of one another. Both were known to have been published by 19th December 1807 but nothing was known on the vital question of which was published before the other. In the circumstances described above there was clearly a risk that at some later date evidence might be forthcoming to show that the name Potamis Hübner was published before Morpho Fabricius. The rejection of the name Morpho Fabricius in such circumstances in favour of the name Potamis Hübner would have been open to the strongest objection, for the name Morpho Fabricius is the eponym of a family-group name and is one of the best-known generic names in the whole of the butterflies. Moreover, the adoption of the name Potamis in place of the name Morpho would have caused great confusion in view of the fact that on those occasions on which the name Potamis has appeared in the literature, it has been employed for a genus belonging to a quite different family (the family Nymphalidae), the authors who used it following the action of Hübner in the rejected leaflet, the Tentamen of 1806. In order to ward off the risk described above, an application was submitted to the Commission asking for the protection of the name Morpho Fabricius in whatever might be considered the most suitable manner. This application was approved by the Commission in its Opinion 137 published in October 1942 (Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 2 : 21-28), where it ruled that in the case of names for the same generic taxon published in the paper by Fabricius in the Mag. f. Insektenk and by Hübner in the Samml. exot. Schmett. respectively preference was to be given to the Fabrician name over the Hübnerian name. In the same paper the name Morpho Fabricius 1807, was placed on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 564. In 1954 in its Direction 4 (loc. cit. 2 : 629-652) the Commission clarified and expanded the Ruling given in Opinion 137, expressly rejecting the name Potamis Hübner under its Plenary Powers and placing it on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 212. Morphidae Boisduval, 1836, was proposed as a available name in preference to Morphidae Westwood, 1851, on the Official List of Family Names in Zoology. Also Morphidae Agassiz, 1847, was proposed for suppression and placement on the Official Index , an unjustified emendation of Morphides Boisduval, 1836 by Cowan, 1977, The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 34 (2) : 111. Morphidae Agassiz, 1847, an unjustified emendation of Morphites Boisduval, 1836 by direction 113, 1982, Morphidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera) : further correction to Official List entry, Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 39 (3) : 196. MORPHO was included within the subfamily NYMPHALIDAE: MORPHINAE by Ackery et al., in Kristensen (1999). The higher classification used here follows Lamas (2008). See images at Butterflies of America.

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Additional Information

Format unknown
License Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
Dataset buttmoth
Dataset ID f8bc9b9c-009a-4689-bd01-ed621095c457
Resource Butterflies and Moths of the World
Resource ID c1727662-2d1e-426f-818c-d144552a747c