Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 74 (31 August 2017) ISSN 2057-0570 (online) 111

Opinion 2397 (Case 3402) – Photinini LeConte, 1881 (Insecta,

Coleoptera) and Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (Insecta, Mantodea):
resolution of homonymy between family-group names

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

c/o Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum,
2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore 117377, Republic of Singapore
(iczn@nus.edu.sg)
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EDFA6914-D1EF-4CC4-BE9D-8861AE1789A9
http://dx.doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v74.a027

Abstract. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has used its plenary
power to resolve the homonymy between the family names Photinini LeConte, 1881 for a
group of lightning bugs and Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 for a group of praying mantises by
ruling that the stem of the generic name Photina Burmeister, 1838 for purposes of Article
29 of the Code is Photina-, thereby emending the mantis subfamily name to Photinainae
Giglio-Tos, 1915. The Commission has further ruled under the plenary power that Photinus
pallens Fabricius, 1798 is both a justified emendation of P. pullens Fabricius, 1798 and
the type species of Photinus Laporte, 1833, and that Mantis vitrea Burmeister, 1838 is
available despite being a junior primary homonym of M. vitrea Stoll, 1813.

Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; Insecta; Coleoptera; Mantodea; Lampyridae;

Photinini; Photinaini; Photininae; Photinainae; Photinus; Photina; Photinus pallens;
Photina vitrea; fireflies; lightning bugs; praying mantises.

Ruling
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has hereby:
(1) used its plenary power:
(a) to rule that the specific name pallens Fabricius, 1798 is a justified emendation
of the original spelling pullens Fabricius, 1798 as published in the binomen
Lampyris pullens;
(b) to set aside all previous type fixations for the generic name Photinus Laporte,
1833 prior to that of Lampyris pullens Fabricius, 1798 by Fleutiaux et al.
(1947: 160);
(c) to rule that the specific name vitrea Burmeister, 1838 as published in the
binomen Mantis vitrea, is not invalid by reason of its being a junior primary
homonym of vitrea Stoll, 1813 as published in the binomen Mantis vitrea;
(d) to rule that for the purposes of Article 29 of the Code the stem of the generic
name Photina Burmeister, 1838 is Photina-;
(2) placed the following generic names on the Official List of Generic Names in
Zoology:
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(a) Photinus Laporte, 1833 (gender: masculine), type species Lampyris pallens
Fabricius, 1798, as ruled under the plenary power in (l)(b) above;
(b) Photina Burmeister, 1838 (gender: feminine), type species by subsequent
designation by Kirby (1904: 273) Mantis vitrea Burmeister, 1838;
(3) placed the following specific names on the Official List of Specific Names in
Zoology:
(a) pallens Fabricius, 1798, with the qualification that, as ruled in (l)(a) above, it is
a justified emendation of pullens Fabricius 1798, as published in the binomen
Lampyris pullens (type species of Photinus Laporte, 1833, as ruled in (l)(b)
above);
(b) vitrea Burmeister, 1838, as published in the binomen Mantis vitrea (type
species of Photina Burmeister, 1838), with the endorsement that it is not
invalid by reason of its being a junior primary homonym of Mantis vitrea Stoll,
1813, as ruled in (1)(c) above;
(4) placed the following family names on the Official List of Family-Group Names in
Zoology:
(a) Photinini LeConte, 1881 (type genus Photinus Laporte, 1833) (Coleoptera);
(b) Photinainae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (type genus Photina Burmeister, 1838) (spelling
emended by the ruling in (1)(d) above) (Mantodea);
(5) placed the specific name pullens Fabricius, 1798, as published in the binomen
Lampyris pullens (spelling emended to pallens as ruled in (l)(a) above) on the
Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Specific Names in Zoology; and
(6) placed the family name Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (junior homonym of Photinini
LeConte, 1881 (spelling emended to Photinainae by the ruling in (1)(d) above)
(Mantodea)) on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Family-Group Names in
Zoology.

History of Case 3402

An application to resolve the homonymy between the family names Photinini LeConte,
1881 for a group of lightning bugs and Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 for a group of
praying mantises was received from Gavin J. Svenson (Laboratory for Conservation and
Evolutionary Genetics, New York State Museum, Albany, New York, U.S.A.) and Marc A.
Branham (Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville,
Florida, U.S.A.). After correspondence the Case was published in BZN 64(4): 243–251 on
20 December 2007 (Svenson & Branham, 2007). No comments on the Case were received.
The Case was sent for vote on 2 December 2016 (VP 10). A greater than two-thirds
majority of Commissioners voted FOR the Case (17 For, 0 Against, 7 Split).

Decision of the Commission

At the close of the voting period on 2 March 2017 the votes were as follows:
Affirmative votes – 17: Aescht, Bogutskaya, Bourgoin, Evenhuis, Grygier, Halliday,
Kojima, Kottelat, Krell, Kullander, Lamas, Pape, Rosenberg, Welter-Schultes, Winston,
Zhang and Zhou.
Negative votes – None.
Split votes – 7: Alonso-Zarazaga FOR all except AGAINST (1)(a), (3)(a), (5); Ballerio
FOR all except ABSTAIN from (1)(a); Bouchard FOR all except AGAINST (1)(a), (3)(a),
 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 74 (31 August 2017) ISSN 2057-0570 (online) 113

(5); Dmitriev FOR (1)(c), (3)(b); AGAINST (1)(a), (1)(b), (1)(d), (2), (3)(a), (4), (5), (6);
Harvey FOR all except AGAINST (1)(b); Rheindt FOR all except AGAINST (1)(a), (3)(a),
(5); Yanega FOR all except AGAINST (1)(a), (3)(a), (5).
Ng and van Tol were on leave of absence.
No vote was received from Pyle.

Voting FOR, Halliday stated that it should nevertheless be noted that pallens is an incorrect
subsequent spelling, not an emendation, and that it should be ruled that pallens is the
correct spelling under Article 33.3.1, not under Article 33.2.3.1. Also voting FOR, Welter-
Schultes stated that he regarded pullens as an inadvertent (printer’s or copyist’s) error,
and that the name should have read pallens, which is suggested by the word “pallida”
appearing as the first reported character state for the species in the original description.
Fabricius used Latin words for his new species and without recourse to any external source
of information the probability is near zero that something else could have been meant here.
Consequently pullens should be corrected by the community to read pallens under Article
32.5.1, and as such pallens would be a justified emendation that would fall under Article
33.2.2 for further treatment. The present ruling (1)(a) replaces this interpretation and sets
the correction under the authority of the Commission.

SPLITTING his vote, Alonso-Zarazaga noted that Fabricius himself (1801, Systema
Eleutheratorum, 2: 103) amended the typographic error in his previous book, since the
specific name pullens has no meaning in Latin. Fabricius wrote then correctly pallens and
Laporte (1833) was using this Fabrician correction. That is why pullens has never been
used after the original description (see para. 5) while pallens has come into prevailing
usage. Consequently, requests 1(a), 3(a) and 5 are unnecessary. Also SPLITTING his vote,
Dmitriev stated that he strongly believes that triply-preoccupied names should always
be replaced, unless the senior homonym is a nomen oblitum. Also SPLITTING his vote,
Rheindt stated that he was voting for all the items requested, with the exception that
proposed rulings (1)(a), (3)(a), and (5) should not be supported, as the spelling pallens is
already the correct original spelling under Article 33.3.1; it is not an emendation, nor does
it require a Commission ruling. Also SPLITTING his vote, Yanega stated that the proposed
rulings (1)(a), (3)(a), and (5) should not be supported, as the spelling pallens is already the
correct original spelling under Article 33.2.3; so far as the Code is concerned, the name is
already pallens Fabricius, and no other actions are necessary.

Original descriptions
The following are the original descriptions to the entries on either an Official List or an
Index in the ruling given in the present Opinion:

pallens, Lampyris, Fabricius 1798: 124.

Photina Burmeister, 1838: 531.
Photinainae Giglio-Tos, 1915: 65.
Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915: 65.
Photinini LeConte, 1881: 30.
Photinus Laporte, 1833: 140.
pullens, Lampyris, Fabricius, 1798: 124.
vitrea, Mantis, Burmeister, 1838: 532.
114 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 74 (31 August 2017) ISSN 2057-0570 (online)

References
Burmeister HC (1838) Handbuch der Entomologie. Fangschrechen, Mantodea 2 (5–8): 517–552.
Fabricius JC (1798) Supplementum entomologiae systematicae. Proft et Storch, Hafniae, 572 pp.
Fleutiaux E, Legros C, Lepesme P, Paulian R (1947) Famille des Lampyridae. Faune de l’Empire
Francais VII Coléoptères des Antilles, 1: 158–162.
Giglio-Tos E (1915) Mantidi esotici: Generi e specie nuove. Bollettino della Societa entomologica
italiana 46: 31–108.
Kirby WF (1904) A synonymic catalogue of Orthoptera. Volume 1. Orthoptera Euplexoptera,
Cursoria, et Gressoria (Forficilidae, Hemimeridae. Blattidae, Mantidae and Phasmidae). British
Museum, Natural History, London, x + 501 pp.
Laporte MFL (1833) D’une revision du genre Lampyre. Annales de la Société Entomologique de
France 2: 122–153.
LeConte JL (1881) Synopsis of the Lampyridae of the United States. Transactions of the American
Entomological Society 9: 15–72.
Stoll C (1813) Répresentation exactement colorée d’après nature des Spectres ou Phasmes, des
Mantes, des Sauterelles, des Grillons, des Criquets et des Blattes qui se trouvent dans les quatre
parties du monde, l’Europe, l’Asie, l’Afrique et l’Amérique. J.C. Sepp et Fils, Amsterdam, 42 +
14 pp.
Svenson GJ, Branham MA (2007) Case 3402 – Photinini LeConte, 1881 (Insecta, Coleoptera) and
Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (Insecta, Mantodea): proposed resolution of homonymy between
family-group names. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 64 (4): 243–251.