Roger et al.,

As was suggested by others, the >3-part "name" bit is resolved by looking at ICBN Article 24.1 (with my emphasis): "The *NAME* of an infraspecific taxon is a combination of the name of a species and an infraspecific epithet. A connecting term is used to denote rank."

The Example right under it notes that such taxa "may be referred to" by the many-part strings... but while those convey information about the classification of the taxon they do not qualify as "names" under the Code. Note that you could have a 7-part monster like: Aus bus subsp. cus var. dus subvar. eus f. fus subf. gus

But no matter how you slice it this would convey classification information, but is not technically a scientific "name" under the Code.

It is rather more simple in zoology, since there is only one rank below species that can be used for valid/accepted names: subspecies...

...so nothing more than trinomial for either of these Codes.

Cheers!

________________________________________ From: tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of tdwg-content-request@lists.tdwg.org [tdwg-content-request@lists.tdwg.org] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 6:00 AM To: tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org Subject: tdwg-content Digest, Vol 13, Issue 1

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Today's Topics:

1. subvarieties and subformas in DwC (Roger Hyam)

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Message: 1 Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:55:45 +0100 From: Roger Hyam rogerhyam@mac.com Subject: [tdwg-content] subvarieties and subformas in DwC To: tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org Message-ID: 05FAD862-9F58-405D-96F1-60EDF4A9C28E@mac.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi All,

Is there a standard way of including 4 word names in DwC for the sub sub ranks such as subvarieties and subformas.

I don't condone the use of these ranks but if we have to express them what do people normally do?

Have I missed something in the docs?

Many thanks,

Roger

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