Subspecies
Original
description
Synonyms
Empis fuscipes
Fabricius, 1794 (nec Empis fuscipes Gmelin,
1790) (nec Empis fuscipes Brullé, 1832)
(see below)
Hilara fuscipes
(Fabricius, 1794)
Tachydromia
fuscipes (Fabricius, 1794)
Plumbea fuscipes
(Fabricius, 1794)
Hilara
quadrivittata Meigen, 1822 (nec Lynch
Arribalzaga, 1878)
Hilara carinthiaca Strobl, 1892
Note on the taxonomical history of the name
Empis fuscipes: During his lifetime Nathaniel
Gottfried Leske (1751-1786) gathered a large
collection of natural objects, mainly stones
and minerals, but also animals. Today largely
forgotten, Leske was a well-known scientist at
his time and his collection was the then
famous "Museum Leskeanum" and was frequented
by numerous scientists. When Leske was
appointed as a professor in Marburg (Germany)
he mailed his collection to the university.
Later, when he travelled to his new post, his
coach had an accident and he died several days
after. Curators at the Marburg university, who
already had the opportunity to see the Leske
collection that was sent to them, now tried to
convince Landgraf (landgrave) Wilhelm IX to
buy the collection for the university.
However, the price was too high and thus the
collection was not acquired. Nevertheless,
contemporary geologists and zoologists
catalogued the collection and published these
efforts in the book "Museum Leskeanum" in
1789, edited by Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten
(Karsten 1789). This work is largely forgotten
today and has even been excluded from
Zoological Nomenclature in Opinion 1877 (ICZN
1997). Karsten was involved in cataloguing the
geological objects and shells in Leske´s
collection. The insects were catalogued by
Johann Jacob Zschach and these pages have been
published separately one year before the
complete work (Zschach 1788). Thus, this
latter work is available for Zoological
Nomenclature, because it is mentioned in the
Application (Rosenberg 1996) but not on the
Official Index. The Museum Leskeanum has an
indirect impact on insect nomenclature: Gmelin
was aware of the book and in his 1790 volume
(Gmelin 1790) he copied the descriptions of
insects from Museum Leskeanum and gave
binominal names to them. Thus, these names are
available. He named one of the species "Empis
fuscipes" (a possible synonym of Empis
bicuspidata). Thus, this name is a
senior primary homonym of the name of the
present species. However, according to Article
23.9.1. of the International Code of
Zoological Nomenclature it is possible to
disregard the senior homonym if it has not
been in use after 1899 and the junior homonym
has been in frequent use. To my knowledge, the
name by Gmelin has never been used in any
other publication and is thus a perfect nomen
oblitum. It is difficult to determine whether
Article 23.9.1.2. is met, because the body of
literature on this particular Empis species is
small given that Dipterology is not as
proliferative as e.g. Lepidopterology or
Coleopterology. But I suggest that Empis
fuscipes Fabricius, 1794 should be regarded as
a nomen protectum and thus as the valid name
of the present species.
Empis fuscipes Brullé, 1832 is a nomen
dubium as well. It has not been described from
Germany, but from Greece and therefore I do
not regard this name further. It might denote
a separate Greek species; if so it would need
a new name, because the name by Brullé
is a junior primary homonym of Empis fuscipes
Gmelin, 1790 and Empis fuscipes Fabricius,
1794.
Identification
Distribution
Biology
This page has been updated on November 26, 2011
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael Prpic. All
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