Vachoniolus minipectenibus ( Levy, Amitai & Shulov 1973 ) (Buthidae)

Acosta, Luis E. & Fet, Victor, 2005, Nomenclatural notes in Scorpiones (Arachnida), Zootaxa 934 (1), pp. 1-12 : 5

Vachoniolus minipectenibus ( Levy, Amitai & Shulov 1973) (Buthidae)

Buthacus minipectenibus Levy, Amitai & Shulov 1973: 128 .

Buthacus minipectinibus: Vachon 1974: 948 . Subsequent incorrect spelling.

Vachoniolus minipectinatus Fet & Lowe 2000: 278 . Unjustified emendation (junior objective synonym)

The species name minipectenibus (as in the original) was spelled as minipectinibus by Vachon (1974: 948). Although Fet & Lowe (2000) assumed this was a correction, there is no indication that the change was intentional, and thus is to be interpreted as a subsequent incorrect spelling. Fet & Lowe (2000) stressed that both minipectenibus and minipectinibus were mistakenly formed Latin adjectives, then explicitly proposing minipectinatus as the correct word. In fact, the name minipectenibus is neither an adjective or a noun in the nominative singular, nor a noun in genitive, as required by Art. 11.9.1, but a compound term in another case instead (dative or ablative plural). Moreover, the correct form of the plural dative/ablative of 'pecten' is not 'pectenibus' but 'pectinibus', as used by Vachon (1974). Nevertheless, improper use of Latin itself does not make a name incorrect (Art. 32.5.1). And more importantly, words forming a species­group name must be, or be treated as the mentioned adjectives or nouns (Art. 11.9.1). No matter that minipectenibus is none of the categories listed in Art. 11.9.1, the name of Levy et al. (1973) is to be accepted in its original spelling. The easiest solution is to treat it as an arbitrary combination of letters, and as such, a noun in apposition. Vachoniolus minipectinatus is therefore an unjustified emendation and a junior objective synonym of Buthacus minipectenibus .