Amauropelta

Kessler, Michael, Smith, Alan R., Øllgaard, Benjamin, Matos, Fernando B. & Moran, Robbin C., 2023, Prodromus of a fern flora of Bolivia. XLII. Update I., Phytotaxa 630 (3), pp. 183-210 : 204

Amauropelta

A Ph.D. thesis by Alvarez-Fuentes (2010) has been recently credited (2021) by IPNI as having established several new combinations in Amauropelta that pertain to primarily Antillean species. If accepted as effectively published, these combinations predate those made in various other publications, particularly ones by Salino et al. (2015) and Sánchez (2017). For Bolivia, only a few of the names with Alvarez-Fuentes as combining authority would alter the authorship of species of Amauropelta , namely those treated by Smith and Kessler (2017) as A. balbisii (Spreng.) A.R.Sm. , A. funckii (Mett) A.R.Sm. , A. pachyrhachis (Kunze ex Mett.) Salino & T.E.Almeida , and A. rivularioides (Fée) Salino & T.E.Almeida.

Beginning with the Vienna Code (2005), and continuing with the Shenzhen Code ( Turland et al. 2018, Art. 30.9, Examples 18 and 19 especially pertinent) botanical theses were accepted as a way to effectively publish new plant names, but with several stipulations: 1) an ISBN number is included on the thesis; 2) the author distributes copies of his thesis to individuals or libraries; and 3) the author give an explicit statement (referring to the requirements of the Code for effective publication) or offer other internal evidence that the work is to be regarded as an effective publication by its author or publisher.

We have obtained a copy of the Alvarez-Fuentes thesis from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and find no evidence that any of these three conditions were met. We are unable to determine where the thesis was deposited, other than at Michigan State University. No reviews or notices of the thesis have been found. Neither we, nor other colleagues in our field, nor apparently IPNI managers, were aware of this thesis until 2021 (late October for us). Therefore, we consider that all 51 of the Alvarez-Fuentes (2010) combinations in Amauropelta , as well as several new taxa in his thesis, fail to meet criteria for effective publication given in the Shenzhen Code ( Turland et al. 2018).