Malachius raniansis Mawlood, Hammamurad & Abdulla, 2017

Plonski, Isidor S., 2021, Multiple original spellings, living authors and the Code: The case of Malachius raniansis Mawlood, Hammamurad & Abdulla, 2017 (Coleoptera: Melyridae), Zootaxa 4927 (2), pp. 297-300 : 298

Malachius raniansis Mawlood, Hammamurad & Abdulla, 2017

Malachiusraniansis [sic!, = Malachius raniansis ] (correct original spelling): Mawlood et al. 2017: p. 2 (English abstract & key words), p. 3 (description), p. 5 (diagnosis), p. 6 (legend of figure 1).

Malachiusraniasia [sic!, = Malachius raniasia ] (incorrect original spelling): Mawlood et al. 2017: p. 1 (Arabian abstract).

Onymotop: The type locality is in the environment of Ranya city (36°15′18″N, 44°53′1″E), Ranya district , Sulaymaniyah governorate, Kurdistan autonomous region, Iraq .

Onymophores: Type material was not examined. According to Mawlood et al. (2017), the holotype is housed in the insect museum of the College of Agriculture at the Salahaddin University in Erbil, while the whereabouts of the paratypes (7 ³³, 6 ♀♀) were not communicated .

Nomen availability: The nomen in question was introduced in the second issue of the twelfth volume of the ‘ Kirkuk University Journal for Scientific Studies’ ( KUJSS), which was issued in March 2017 . The KUJSS is an official publication of the Faculty of Science at the University of Kirkuk, available as print ( ISSN: 1992-0849) and electronic / online open access (eISSN: 2616-6801) edition. Note that the International Standard Serial Numbers are printed on the articles since the first isue of the ninth volume (Spring 2014), and the electronical one since the second issue of the thirteenth volume (June 2018) .

The KUJSS is – in the words of Noruzi & Abdekhoda (2014) – rather “invisible to world science”: a PDF was found by serendipity via Google Scholar using the keywords ‘ Malachius ’ and ‘Iraq’ (the same document can also be found when searching for ‘Malachiusraniansis’ or ‘Malachiusraniasia’).

A physical copy of the work in question was unobtainable (see above). This raised doubts on the existence of an effectively published work printed on paper. Here, it is concluded that the KUJSS is not disseminated widely, and that the taxon name is published and thus available.

Nomen validity and correctness: There is a conflict in nomography (= spelling of a nomen), viz. a case of both ameletography (= presence of one or more ameletographs (= spelling of a nomen used inadvertently in a publication by an author, editor or publisher)) and symprotography (= presence of two or more symprotographs (= multiple original spellings) for the nomen in the original publication where this nomen was introduced) – or, in other words, between original spellings competing for correctness. This situation is here resolved with a special onomatergy (= any action of resolution of uncertainties and ambiguities which may have remained after a catastasy (= original publication of a nomen)), viz. that of a nomographic correction during an airesy (= first-reviser action):

The original ameletographs and symprotographs ‘ Malachiusraniansis ’ and ‘ Malachiusraniasia ’ are transcribed into the apographs ‘ Malachius raniansis ’ and ‘ Malachius raniasia ’. At the same time, the former is selected to be the lectoprotograph (= correct original spelling after airesy) and later the leipoprotograph (= incorrect original spelling after airesy).