Stenus (Nestus) minutalis, Alekseev & Bukejs, 2011

Alekseev, Vitaly I. & Bukejs, Andris, 2011, Contributions to the knowledge of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) in the Kaliningrad region. 2, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 11 (2), pp. 209-231 : 232

Stenus (Nestus) minutalis nom. n.

minus Ryvkin, 2011 , Baltic Journal of Coleopterology, 11(1): 66 syn. n.

This year, among four new species of the crassus group, I have published Stenus (Nestus) minus Ryvkin, 2011 . A short time later, Dr. Alfred Newton (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA) sent me a letter where he wrote: “Unfortunately your new name Stenus minus is preoccupied, by Stenus minor Casey 1884 . You stated that minus was a Latin adjective, and as such would have the same stem (min -) as the Latin adjective minor ”.

Despite the fact that a similarity of stems does not result inevitably in homonymy, having analysed the case I am to consider it necessary to give a replacing name for Stenus minus for the following reasons.

The latin name minus , as adjective, can bear the following lexical meanings: 1) smaller (comparativus (neuter) from suppletive stem to parvus); 2) bare-bellied (positivus (masculine)). Since I heedlessly indicated only the first of the meanings in the Etymology section of the original description, the specific epithet did not agree in gender with the generic name; accordingly, the name must be changed under the Article 34.2 of ICZN. The masculine comparativus to parvus should be minor ; therefore, as a result of the mandatory change in spelling, the species name becomes a junior homonym to Stenus (Nestus) minor Casey, 1884 , which has been synonymized with Stenus (Nestus) pudicus Casey, 1884 (Puthz 1971). I propose the new name Stenus (Nestus) minutalis nom. n. (from the latin adjective meaning ‘small’) to replace the junior homonym Stenus (Nestus) minor Ryvkin, 2011 (= Stenus (Nestus) minus Ryvkin, 2011 syn. n.) nec Stenus (Nestus) minor Casey, 1884 .

I thank Dr. A. Newton for attracting my attention to the problem.