Octotemna Blanchard, 1850

Allsopp, Peter G. & Schoolmeesters, Paul, 2024, Resolution of some nomenclatural issues in the Cetoniinae, Dynastinae, Hopliinae, Melolonthinae, Pachydeminae and Sericinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), Zootaxa 5433 (4), pp. 573-580 : 577-578

Genus Octotemna Blanchard, 1850

Type species. Octotemna singularis Blanchard, 1850 .

Octotemna Blanchard, 1850: 84 .

Miotemna Lacordaire, 1856: 210 . Unnecessary replacement name.

Composition. Octotemna singularis Blanchard, 1850 .

Distribution. Bolivia.

Designation of type species

Rules surrounding the designation of type species for genus-group names and consequent validity of names were reviewed thoroughly by Dubois (2022).

New genus-group names published after 1930 and before 2000 must be accompanied by the fixation of a type species in the original publication or be expressly proposed as a new replacement name (Article 13.3). Such a name cannot be made “subsequently available” by a posteriori designation of a type species, and is definitively nomenclaturally unavailable, even if several nominal species were originally included in the taxon. Any subsequent designation, even if intended to apply to the original genus-group name, results in the establishment of a new name, having its own author and date. In addition, if a genus-group name is replaced by a new replacement name, the type species of the nominal taxon must then be designated, if one has not already been fixed.

For genus-group names published after 1999, an additional rule applies: the new name must be explicitly indicated as intentionally new (Article 16.1). Hence, any subsequent author who mentioned one of these two species as being the “ type ” of this nominal taxon while still crediting the genus-group name to its original author(s) would not have hereby made this name available. To do so, it would have been necessary to declare explicitly the intention to establish a new name, and for this to be clear and unambiguous.