Pucha, Francke, 1985

Acosta, Luis E. & Fet, Victor, 2005, Nomenclatural notes in Scorpiones (Arachnida), Zootaxa 934 (1), pp. 1-12 : 7

Pucha , Puchale , Repucha (Buthidae)

In his conspectus of the available generic names, Francke (1985) detected three genusgroup names in the Buthidae , which, aside of being under synonymy since long ago, were also junior homonyms. For all three he provided replacement names, in order to remove the homonymy.

Phassus Thorell 1877a , a monotypic genus containing only Phassus columbianus Thorell 1877a , was placed under the synonymy of Tityus C.L. Koch 1836 by Kraepelin (1899). It is also a junior homonym of Phassus Walker 1856 (Lepidoptera) ; Francke (1985) accordingly introduced the replacement name Pucha .

Androctonus (Prionurus) Ehrenberg in Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1828 was placed in the synonymy of Androctonus Ehrenberg 1828 by Vachon (1948). Francke (1985) found Prionurus Ehrenberg to be a junior homonym of Prionurus Lacépède 1804 (Osteichthyes) and Prionurus Rafinesque 1815 (Reptilia). Despite further complications involving the other names ( Fet & Lowe 2000), Francke (1985) proposed Puchale as a replacement name for Prionurus Ehrenberg.

Pilumnus C.L. Koch 1837 was put by C.L. Koch (1850) in the synonymy of Lychas C.L. Koch 1845 . The name Pilumnus C.L. Koch was also preoccupied by Pilumnus Leach 1815 (Crustacea) , and Francke (1985) proposed the replacement name Repucha . Fet (1997) pointed out that, since Francke (1985) did not designate a type species for Repucha , the name was not thereby made available. He then designated Lychas scutilus C.L. Koch 1845 as the type species of Repucha , assuming the name to become available from that date and attributed to his authorship ( Repucha Fet 1997 ).

In all three cases no revalidation of the junior synonyms ( Phassus Thorell , Prionurus Eherenberg, Pilumnus C.L. Koch ) was made. Articles 11.5 and 11.6 indicate that to be available, any name must be treated as valid when first proposed. Moreover, Art. 11.6.3 states very clearly that "a name first published after 1960 and treated as a junior synonym on that occasion cannot be made available from that act". These provisions are relevant to Pucha , Puchale and the two versions of Repucha , since the long accepted synonymies were never removed. All three names simply never became available.