Zaraea vs Abia - BugGuide.Net

Just noticed this thread

I already obliterated Zaraea (adding it as a synonym on the Abia guide page) on the day this thread was started. Given that my suggestion of following ECatSym last December has met no opposition, and has received the blessing of Dave Smith and John Ascher, among others, I think it's safe to say we should be using it as our standard now. I just added a link to it on the Symphyta guide page, so editors making/revising guide pages will be able to find it easily.

… Charley Eiseman, 13 September, 2009 - 10:52pm

Right way to go.

Ok, I was able to enter "Zaraea" in the search box and still get valid results, which is exactly the way it should be. I had one contributor ask me the other day why she couldn't find Pepsis formosa in the guide and it was because the person who did the guide page (for Pepsis grossa) didn't bother noting the synonymy. I'm all for Bugguide keeping up-to-date, ahead of the curve, and all that, as long as users entering old names still get the right results. I cannot be emphatic enough about that. Thank you, Charley for making a proper example.

… Eric R. Eaton, 15 September, 2009 - 3:48pm

My 2 cents

The current consensus "out there" seems to be Abia, not Zaraea. If we decide to follow the Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta, as proposed earlier, that would clinch it.

Apparently the whole genus is considered invalid, not just the placement of our species in it. The choices, then, would be to follow Nearctica and leave them all as Zaraea, or to follow the Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta, and make them all Abia.

I noticed, on one image, that =v= asked us not to create an Abia page for it- but I think that was just to prevent a matching set of Abia and Zaraea pages. If we change the standard to the Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta, I'm sure he'll be happy to go along with it.

Other than that, I haven't seen any hint of opposition to the Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta standard, but I don't know if a month at the end of summer is enough time to declare a consensus and move on it.

… Chuck Entz, 30 August, 2009 - 3:17pm

Vassili should be back soon from his trip

We'll see what he says. It would be easy to just change the name of the genus on the genus page and make a note on the synonymy. We'll have to watch that people don't start to make a separate node for Abia.

… john and jane balaban, 30 August, 2009 - 3:48pm

Abia it is

on any relevant taxonomic matters, i would follow Dave's suggestions as a leading symphytan authority [i'm not an expert and thus am in no position to offer an opinion]

… v belov, 4 September, 2009 - 6:54pm

change the name of the genus

and make a note has my vote

… John R. Maxwell, 30 August, 2009 - 8:11pm