Auctorum indicates that a name in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

is used in the sense of subsequent authors, and not in the sense as established by the original author. Its

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

derives from the Latin word for ''of authors'' (

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

plural), and is abbreviated auct. or auctt. Some species names have been used twice for different species so the author of the name needs to be identified. For example "''Leucospermum bolusii'' auct. Gandoger" for the species that was named as such by Gandoger. It is often used in conjunction with nec or non to indicate a misapplied name, e.g. "''Leucospermum bolusii'' auct. non Gandoger" would mean the species not named by Gandoger. It may be qualified to indicate the number of authors, e.g. auctorum multorum (abbreviated auct. mult.), Latin for ''of many authors'', indicating that many subsequent authors used a name in a different sense to the original author, and also by non to give auctorum non (auct. non), to indicate that a following author is not the author of the species.

Examples

'' Leucospermum bolusii'' is a name that was used twice for different species. The first time was by

Michel Gandoger Abbé Jean Michel Gandoger (10 May 1850 – 4 October 1926), was a French botanist and mycologist. He was born in Arnas, Rhône, Arnas, the son of a wealthy vineyard owner in the Beaujolais region. Although he took holy orders at the age of 26, he ...

in 1901. Since this name was validly published, used for a species that did not already have a name and the name had not already been used for another species, it is the correct name. The list of

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of '' Leucospermum cordifolium'' includes ''Leucospermum bolusii'' described by

Edwin Percy Phillips Edwin Percy Phillips (18 February 1884 – 12 April 1967) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, noted for his monumental work ''The Genera of South African Flowering Plants'' first published in 1926. Phillips was born in Sea Point, C ...

in 1910. This name however was already taken. So, ''Leucospermum bolusii'' E.Phillips, 1910 is a later

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

of ''Leucospermum bolusii'' Gandoger, 1901. If the name ''Leucospermum bolusii'' is used in a later publication, the botanical author needs to make clear which one is meant, and which one isn’t. Hence, the species of 1901 would be ''Leucospermum bolusii'' auct. Gandoger, while the synonym of ''Leucospermum cordifolium'', is ''Leucospermum bolusii'' E.Phillips, 1910 auct. non Gandoger. The ''

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

'' gives one of the synonyms of '' Cistus clusii'' as "''C. libanotis'' auct. mult., non L.", meaning that many authors misapplied the name ''Cistus libanotis'' to the species ''Cistus clusii'' thereby using this name differently from the original author,

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. The term can also be used geographically. For example, Looney (2013) considers "Auricularia polytricha sensu auct. amer." (auctorum americae/americarum) to be a synonym of ''Auricularia nigricans'', meaning that only the use by American authors are treated in their work. "Auct. amer." is particular common compared to similar terms for other continents because the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

has a lot of organisms that resemble described taxa in the Old World but may or may not be the same.

References

{{reflist

External links

ICZN
''auctorum'' in the glossary of the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

Invertebrate Ireland Online
''auctorum'' in the glossary of Invertebrate Ireland Botanical nomenclature Zoological nomenclature

Examples

See also

References

External links