Barbary Dove (1 Viewer)

[Gonçalo Elias]

Hello,

I am aware that the taxonomy of the Barbary Dove is somewhat controversial.

This bird is sometimes referred to as Streptopelia roseogrisea var. 'risoria'.

My question relates to the name risoria: should it be written in italic and between quotes?

 

[l_raty]

I would italicize any scientific names, even if treated as invalid.
The "var." indicates you use the name to denote a variant of infra-subspecific rank; the quotes indicate you do not treat the name as denoting a valid taxon; you can use both, but there is some redundancy in doing so.

Note however that, nomenclaturally, "Streptopelia roseogrisea var. 'risoria'" is in principle not an option, because Columba risoria Linnaeus 1758 has nearly a century of precedence over Columba roseogrisea Sundevall 1857, and because, in Opinion 2215 (2008: https://doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v65i4.a2), the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature ruled that this precedence had to be respected. This means that calling a species "Streptopelia roseogrisea" actually amounts to a statement that risoria is not part of it. If it is part of it, the species must be called S. risoria.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Hi Laurent,

Thanks for your reply.

Now I am not sure what is the best way to refer to these domestic stock. I want to include the species in a book that I am preparing about non-native birds in Portugal and would like to know how it shall be treated so to speak.

 

[MJB]

I would italicize any scientific names, even if treated as invalid.
The "var." indicates you use the name to denote a variant of infra-subspecific rank; the quotes indicate you do not treat the name as denoting a valid taxon; you can use both, but there is some redundancy in doing so.

Note however that, nomenclaturally, "Streptopelia roseogrisea var. 'risoria'" is in principle not an option, because Columba risoria Linnaeus 1758 has nearly a century of precedence over Columba roseogrisea Sundevall 1857, and because, in Opinion 2215 (2008: https://doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v65i4.a2), the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature ruled that this precedence had to be respected. This means that calling a species "Streptopelia roseogrisea" actually amounts to a statement that risoria is not part of it. If it is part of it, the species must be called S. risoria.

The tangled history of risoria versus roseogrisea is well unravelled by Hein van Grouw (2018) attached.
MJB