Donegan, Thomas M. (2023)
Towards a more rational and stable nomenclature for Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Greylag Goose Anser anser and their domesticates, including various priority issues, designation of lectotypes, and a First Reviser act. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 143: 406-423, 4 December 2023.
Towards a more rational and stable nomenclature for Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Greylag Goose Anser anser and their domesticates, including various priority issues, designation of lectotypes, and a First Reviser act
Abstract:
Three competing names were introduced by Linnaeus (1758) for Mallard, based on males (
Anas boschas), females (
A. platyrhynchos) and the hook-billed domestic breed (
A. adunca).
A. domestica (often attributed to J. F. Gmelin, 1789, but arguably better to Brünnich, 1764) was described later for domestic ducks.
A. platyrhynchos was selected as having priority over its contemporaneous synonyms via First Reviser actions. Priority of widely used
A. p. domestica remains threatened by the senior
A. adunca and potentially by the mixed type series of
A. boschas (comprising wild male Mallards and ducks of mixed or domestic origin). Lectotypes are designated here for
A. boschas Linnaeus, 1758 (and its synonym
A. boschas fera Brünnich, 1764, or Bechstein, 1792), using the same male Mallard specimen of wild phenotype illustrated by Albin (1734). This clarifies these names as objective synonyms of one another and as junior synonyms of
A. platyrhynchos, as all three would then have a type series exclusively of wild Mallards from Western Europe. Garsault and Brünnich both named
Anser domesticus in the same year, just three weeks apart—on 30 June 1764 and 23 July 1764, respectively. Garsault thus has priority. Consequently, Brünnich's
Anas anser domesticus represents subsequent usage and his
A. boschas domestica is not a homonym. Brünnich's
A. anser ferus and
A. boschas fera for wild geese and Mallards, respectively, if available, would be primary homonyms of one another. Acting as First Reviser, the latter name is here selected as having priority. Authorship of
Anser ferus should be attributed to S. G. Gmelin (1770), whose locality of the Caspian Sea results in a potential threat to the priority heretofore afforded to
A. anser rubrirostris Swinhoe, 1871, for the Eastern Greylag Goose. Brünnich's names
Anser boschas domestica and
Anas boschas fera were introduced as apparent trinominals; they were already in widespread use by 1764. In all likelihood Brünnich thought they had been described already, citing Linnaeus (1746, 1758) and Brisson (1760), but neither made these names available under the Code. Brünnich's names for domestics may not have been recognised because the same font was used in his work to denote distinct male and female plumages as for his
domesticus/a and
ferus/a, potentially denoting infrasubspecific variation. There is competing evidence as to whether or not he intended to name these units. Irrespective, under Art. 45.6.4 infrasubspecific names later adopted as valid are available. Regarding priority of
A. adunca, I will separately be asking the Commission to endorse either Brünnich (1764) or J. F. Gmelin (1789) as author of
Anas boschas domestica. Reversal of priority of
A. adunca Linnaeus, 1758, vs.
A. boschas domestica (Brünnich, 1764, or J. F. Gmelin, 1789), reversal of precedence of
Anser ferus S. G. Gmelin, 1770, vs.
A. anser rubrirostris Swinhoe, 1871, resolution of the type series for
A. anser Linnaeus, 1758, and typification of the genus
Anser Brisson, 1760, also all require ICZN attention.
