Keith Edkins Nomenclator Generum pages

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These pages started as an attempt to make the content of the Nomenclator Zoologicus (Neave et al. 1939–1994) available in a fairly user-friendly form. Discoveries of other data sources led me eventually to expand it to show all genera within the scope of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), or the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP).

Publication of a name under one of these codes does not in general preclude the use of the same name for a different organism under one of the others. However there are cases where an organism is described under one code but is later regarded as belonging to another - for instance Protozoa and fossil taxa - or even thought not to be a lifeform at all, but still blocking the use of its name under its original code. The Internatrional Codes all have similar cautions about cross-code clashes:

• ICZN (Recommendation 1A): "Authors intending to establish new genus-group names are urged to consult the Index Nominum Genericorum (Plantarum) and the Approved List of Bacterial Names to determine whether identical names have been established under the International Codes of Nomenclature relevant to those lists and, if so, to refrain from publishing identical zoological names."
• ICN (Recommendation 54A): "Authors naming new taxa under this Code should, as far as is practicable, avoid using such names as already exist for zoological and prokaryotic taxa."
• ICNP (Principle 2): "The nomenclature of prokaryotes is not independent of botanical and zoological nomenclature. When naming new taxa in the rank of genus or higher, due consideration is to be given to avoiding names which are regulated by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants."
  • In particular, Cyanobacteria enter into homonymy considerations with both the ICN and the ICNP.
• Note also ICNP Rule 10a (part): As from January 2001, newly proposed names must not be later homonyms of names in use in botany or zoology. (Emphasis added)

The main data content is taken from the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) genus-level file available at https://www.irmng.org/export/ (July 2025 release). To this have been added comments, such as "replacement name" or "emendation" originating from the Nomenclator Zoologicus as collated and cleaned by David Remsen and others as described at https://github.com/rdmpage/nomenclator-zoologicus-coldp/tree/v0.2.1 and available from DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7010676.

Further cleaning is being carried out on the IRMNG data, and has so far been systematically applied to Sections A thru H.

Over 11,000 additional genus-group names have been added to the IRMNG list, often guided by one of the several available compendious websites: ZooBank registrations, Wikispecies, the Catalogue of Life, the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, the Paleobiology Database, the AmphibiaWeb, the World Amphipoda Database, the Aphid Species File, the World Auchenorryncha Database, Bryozoa.net, la Base de données Titan sur les Cerambycidés ou Longicornes, the Universal Chalcidoidea Database, Systema Dipterorum, Fishbase and Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes, the World Foraminifera Database, Lepindex (NHM), the Lygaeoidea Species File, MilliBase and Chilobase, MolluscaBase, Nemaplex, the World Odonata List, Nomenclatura Oligochaetologica, the Orthoptera Species File, the World Ostracoda Database, the Paleobiology Database, the World Porifera Database, the Reptile Database, and ScaleNet. Since September 2025 I have been working with IRMNG to add these names to their database: on 10th April 2026 this phase of the exercise was completed with a total of 11,764 additions.

Name belonging to each Code are separated and colour-coded as follows:

• Names in black: genera governed by the ICZN.
• Names in green: genera governed by the ICN (except Cyanobacteria).
• Names in purple: genera governed by the ICNP.
• Names in brown: names whose Code placement is uncertain (Protozoa, fossils); or are no longer thought to represent living organisms. If raising a new genus with one of these names it will be necessary to check its history of Code placement
• Names in red: names believed to be invalid, for instance nomina nuda or incorrect spellings; or which have been placed on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology with annotations which mean they are not considered for purposes of honomyny. These are marked NZ, IRMNG, ICZN, OS according as the reason for rejection is derived from the cleaned Nomenclator Zoologicus, the IRMNG, the ICZN Index, or other sources. To remove these items from the display, click this button: Hide

Junior homonyms within the same code are shown indented with the genus name in Italics rather than Bold.

Names have been modernised in accordance with the Codes: all accents and apostrophes removed, and hyphens removed from Animals, Prokaryotes, and fossil Plants. The symbol † indicates a genus known only from fossils - this information is not comprehensively available and the absence of this symbol should not be taken as indicating a taxon is extant.

Collated by Keith Edkins 2023–6. In sympathy with the IRMNG genus-level data, these pages are open-access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0). David Remsen's data is released under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain licence.