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Re: Aceria Galls On Ash

Can anyone help me either distinguish between the following gall causing mites or provide any evidence that they are in fact one and the same species :-

- Aceria fraxinivora, (Nalepa, 1909) - NHMSYS0020190408 - acarine (Acari)

- Aceria fraxinivorus,   - NHMSYS0020470049 - acarine (Acari)

They seem to be alternative names, as far as I can ascertain, for a mite causing 'lump' galls on the keys of Ash (Fraxinus excelsior).  If I am correct then one needs to be a synonym of the other and the Dictionary should not have 2 separate entries.

Anyone ??

Cheers

Steve

Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/

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Re: Aceria Galls On Ash

Dear Steve,

You are right that both these names relate to the same species.

Don’t forget that the Species Dictionary is a collection of checklists and aims to represent names exactly as they are presented in various lists.

Thus we have Aceria fraxinivora (without an authority) NBNSYS0000050406, which comes from the Recorder 3.3. list; Aceria fraxinivora (Nalepa, 1909) NHMSYS0020190408, which provides the well formed name, was obtained from the Fauna Europaea list of Prostigmata of Britain (this list was imported to fill a significant gap at that time; Aceria fraxinivorus (without an authority) NHMSYS0020470049 is in the British Plant Gall Society checklist.

All three are mapped to Aceria fraxinivora (Nalepa, 1909) in the Name Server, and Aceria fraxinivora (without an authority) and Aceria fraxinivorus are marked as ‘ill-formed’.

I also sometimes despair at the multiplication of names caused by such variants. The Species Dictionary (in the main) does a good job of mapping equivalencies, but I appreciate that equivalencies may not be so easy to spot in the way lists are presented in Recorder.

We are currently rebuilding the Species Dictionary website at the NHM and, when finished, this will make it much easier to find out which is the recommended name for a species.

Regards,

Charles Hussey

NBN Species Dictionary Project Manager (Retired!) smile

3 (edited by stevemcbill 08-09-2010 06:22:39)

Re: Aceria Galls On Ash

Charles,

Many thanks for that.  I am looking forward to the new taxonomy website build.

I had thought that the facility at:  http://data.nbn.org.uk/nbnexamples/ws-t … Search.jsp was cross-list and therefore would show all names for an entered species.

Obviously I was wrong as entering either of these species names (A.fraxinivora or A.fraxinivorus) does NOT show the other name as being a synonym of the other but shows each name separately.

Cheers and thanks again for your time and efforts on our behalf.

Steve

Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/