OPINIONS RENDERED BY THE INTERNATIONAL 



COMMISSION ON ZOOLOGICAL 



NOMENCLATURE 



Opinions 78 to <si 



OPINION 78 



Case of Dermacentor andersoni vs. dermacentor venustus 



Summary. — On basis of the premises presented, the Commission is of the 

 Opinion that Dermacentor venustus dates from Marx in Neumann, 1897, type 

 specimen Collection Marx No. 122 (U. S. National Museum), from Ovis aries, 

 Texas, and that Dermacentor andersoni dates from Stiles, 1908, holotype 

 U. S. P. H. & M. H. S. 9467, from Woodman, Montana. 



Statement of case. — This case has been submitted to the Com- 

 mission by W. Dwight Pierce in the following letter, W, Dwight 

 Pierce to Stiles : 



Feb. 18, 1920: The recent publication of Wolbach's excellent monograph 

 on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, again brings critically before the medical 

 profession the confusion as to the name of the spotted fever tick. In order 

 that we may get at this thing right and forever legally settle this name I 

 appeal to the International Commission to give us a definite ruling on the 

 proper name of the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Tick. In order that this 

 ruling may be based on absolutely fair and just premises I would request that 

 statements be requested of Dr. C. W. Stiles, Mr. Nathan Banks, Mr. F. C 

 Bishopp, and Dr. Nuttall, and others if necessary, these statements to be used 

 as briefs and to be published with the ruling. My personal conclusions are as 

 follows: 



1. That there is no question whatever that Dermacentor andersoni Stiles 

 (1905) refers to the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Tick. 



2. That there is debatable ground as to whether D. venustus Banks (1908) 

 is conspecific and refers to the fever tick. 



3. The first reference I find to D. venustus Marx mss. is in Neumann (1897) 

 as a synonym of D. reticulatus Fabricius, undescribed. 



4. Dermacentor andersoni Stiles was described as the fever tick, in 1905, 

 (U. S. Treas. Dept., Hyg. Lab., Bull. 20, pp. 1-119) and the description 

 strengthened in 1908 and 1910. 



5. In 1908 Banks drew up the description, as a new species, of D. venustus 

 (Marx mss.), from the Marx material, which was subsequently examined by 

 Stiles, and found to consist of three lots pf material of at least two species. 

 Stiles definitely picked from Bank's type material Marx No. 122 as type of 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 73, No. 2 



