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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1337 



7. The law of priority, subject to that of 

 generic names, shall be fully operative in 

 relation to family and subfamily names. 



Remarks. — This, of course, in cases where 

 changes in family names become necessary, 

 should not be held to apply to the use of any 

 names that are not based on the type genus. 

 (See remarks under Eule 12.) 



8. In the application of the law of 

 priority, consideration is to be given to all 

 names employed respectively in a family or 

 subfamily sense; and to all supergeneric 

 group names not higher than the gi-ade of 

 family, if based on an included genus; but 

 any such names when brought into use must 

 have their endings changed to idm or hvce if 

 they were originally proposed with other 

 terminations. 



Bemarhs. — The necessity for some such 

 rule is obvious, since many early authors, like 

 Swainson, Vigors, and Bonaparte, used plural 

 names with other terminations, such as ina 

 and ini, which, of course, deserve consider- 

 ation in determining the priority of family 

 or subfamily names. Some authors, more- 

 over, who extensively employed the termina- 

 tions idw and i?ifp, changed the penultimate 

 syllable in the family name to " a " whenever 

 necessary to conform to classical usage (e. g., 

 Sylviadse, Laniadse) ; and it is, of course, 

 desirable to retain such names, but with the 

 regular ending. Furthennore, this rule in- 

 volves the treatment of all supergeneric group 

 terms not higher than the gi'ade of family as 

 potential family or subfamily names. 



9. When a family or subfamily is divided, 

 its name is to be retained in both family and 

 subfamily sense for that part containing the 

 type genus of the original group. The re- 

 maining portion should take as its family 

 or subfamily designation the earliest name 

 based on any of its included genera. If there 

 is no such name, the family or subfamily may 

 take for its type genus any included genus, 

 preferably the most characteristic or best 

 known. 



10. When a subfamily is raised to family 

 rank, its type genus is to be retained as the 

 type genus of such family group. 



11. The family or subfamily formed by the 

 combination of two or more families or sub- 

 families takes for its type genus the generic 

 group in any of its components that was first 

 made the basis of a family or subfamily 

 name. 



12. When for any reason the name of the 

 type genus of a family is changed, the de- 

 pendent family name must be changed to 

 correspond to the new designation of the type 

 genus. 



Remarks. — Such change in the name of a 

 type genus occurs whenever the generic term 

 is found to be a homonym or synonym or is 

 transferred to another family group. Since, 

 of course, a family or subfamily designation 

 must be based on the tenahle name of its type 

 genus, there is obvious necessity for a corre- 

 sponding change of the family or subfamily 

 name whenever any alteration takes place in 

 the name of the type genus. In such case, to 

 use a family name already proposed but based 

 on another genus would thereby change the 

 type genus of the family and violate Eule 6. 



13. Of two family or subfamily names in 

 zoology having exactly the same spelling, the 

 later is to be distinguished from the earlier 

 by the prefix " Pro " : hypothetical example, 

 Propicidae. 



Remarks. — Such preoccupation occurs when 

 generic terms having the same word-stem are 

 the bases of two or more family names; and 

 to obviate the use of family names identical 

 in spelling necessitates the selection of an- 

 other designation in place of the family name 

 invalidated. To replace the later name by 

 one based on a newly selected type genus 

 would be the logical method, were it not im- 

 possible in the case of monotypic family 

 groups. Similarly, the use of a new family 

 name formed by the addition of idee to the 

 nominative case instead of to the stem of the 

 name of the type genus, would not avail 

 should the nominative case happen to be the 

 same as the stem. 



The use of the prefix " Pro," which we have 

 selected on account of its meaning and its 

 brevity, seems to be the most satisfactory 

 rule that can be devised for such cases. For 



