Scorpio maurus tunetanus Birula 1910 (Scorpionidae)

Acosta, Luis E. & Fet, Victor, 2005, Nomenclatural notes in Scorpiones (Arachnida), Zootaxa 934 (1), pp. 1-12 : 8

Scorpio maurus tunetanus Birula 1910 (Scorpionidae)

Scorpio maurus tunetanus Birula 1910: 161 . Junior primary homonym of Scorpio tunetanus Herbst 1800 , currently Buthus occitanus tunetanus (Buthidae)

Scorpio maurus punicus Fet 2000b: 479 . Proposed as replacement name for Scorpio maurus tunetanus Birula 1910 , but not currently available.

Fet (2000b) considered Scorpio maurus tunetanus Birula 1910 to be an "objective" junior homonym (properly said, junior primary homonym) of Scorpio tunetanus Herbst 1800 , currently Buthus occitanus tunetanus (Buthidae) . He was right in pointing out that primary homonyms are permanently invalid names, and must normally be replaced (Art. 53.3.). Therefore he introduced the replacement name Scorpio maurus punicus Fet 2000b (in the synonymy, the status of the replaced name was incorrectly indicated as "new synonymy"). However, Art. 23.9.5 gives a particular provision for the case that the involved names apply to taxa not considered congeneric after 1899. This is our case, since Scorpio tunetanus Herbst was removed from that genus as early as 1829 ( Androctonus tunetanus sensu Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1829: 354 ). In that situation, the author must not replace the name automatically, but he should refer the case to the Commission for a ruling under the plenary powers. This provision was not included in the 3 rd edition of the Code, but Fet's (2000) action was made when the 4 th edition was already in force.