Is it just me or did the ICZN make a mistake?

The reasons for invalidating the senior taxa, as given, were spurious and became a self fulfilling prophecy. Two species each with two names were unusually settled by using he most recent duplicate name, not the original first name. The reason given was ostensibly "it's the name used on the CITES list".

A third or so of the reviewers disagreed this was a valid reason to do it while others voted for the unusual change because of this reason. However:

  1. All killifish are exempt from CITES.
  2. The name was only mentioned one time to remove them after being placed on the list in error.
  3. The idea a genus change would confuse CITES was also not valid, the genus name changed later anyway form Leptolebias to Leptopanchax.
  4. CITES does not have a huge number of fish to keep track of. The lists are actually quite small. Roughly 5 fish familiar to some awuatrsrts are on it.
  5. CITES has to keep the names current. It's their job to reflect changes in ICZN taxonomy.
  6. It is not the job of the ICSN to conform to CITES nomenclature. CITES lackes the taxonomic scrutiny ICZN exercises.
Thus is was a poor decision that time has made even worse.

ICZN Case: 2792, Opinion: 1762

P 82 - Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 51(1) March 1994

OPINION 1762

Cynolebias opalescens Myers, 1942 and C. splendens Myers, 1942
(Osteichthyes, Cyprinodontiformes): specific names conserved

Comparative morphology and classification of South American cynopoeciline killifishes (Cyprinodontiformes: Aplocheilidae), with notes on family-group names used for aplocheiloids

A comparative morphological study involving all cynopoeciline killifishes indicates that Leptolebias marmoratus is more closely related to species of the genera Campellolebias and Cynopoecilus than to other species of Leptolebias, and that Mucurilebias leitaoi is the sister group of a clade comprising all other cynopoecilines. Leptopanchax, new genus, is described to place species that share urogenital papilla in males separated from the anal-fin origin by broad interspace, basal portion of the urogenital papilla in males not forming a pronounced wide structure, absence of thickened tissue on the basal portion of the anal fin in males, caudal fin oval and symmetrical in males, anterior proximal radials of the anal fin not placed in close proximity in males, presence of a broad iridescent golden stripe on the distal zone of the dorsal fin in males, and caudal fin with vermiculate dark red marks in males. Poecilopanchax, new subgenus of Cynopoecilus, is diagnosed by having the basihyal narrow, about rectangular, the interarcual element of the dorsal branchial arch ossified, the uncinate process of the third epibranchial distinctively widened, a long filamentous ray on the tip of the anal fin in males, caudal fin lanceolate in males, dark bars on the flank in females, branchiostegal region with intense red pigmentation in males, a brownish red stripe on the basal portion of the dorsal fin in males, and dark red marks extending to the antero-distal margin of the dorsal fin in males. This study follows an old classificatory scheme in which all aplocheiloids are placed in a single family, the Aplocheilidae.


Rediscovery of Leptopanchax splendens (Cyprinodontiformes: Aplocheilidae): a seasonal killifish from the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil that was recently considered extinct

W. J. E. M. COSTA, J. L. O. MATT AND P. F. AMORIM
A recent collection of the seasonal killifish found Leptopanchax splendens c. 5 km from the type locality, 74 years after its last record. The species was historically common in its type locality, the Estrela River basin in south-eastern Brazil, until 1950, after which it was not encountered and thought to have become extinct due to widespread deforestation and urbanization in the region. Despite the rediscovery, this study finds that other recently published reports of L. splendens are misidentifications.