Dick,

Why was the change made from -acea to -oidea? The ending -oidea is so
similar to others (-idae, -ida) that a series of near-homonyms are generated
automatically in the vernacular (lingulids, lingulides, linguloids). Was the
proposer just trying to be tidy?

I suspect that the Commission did not consider the need to avoid homonymy
between the names of genera and families to be very important, because
humans would be likely to understand the difference from the context,
especially as generic names are usually italicized. However, computers are
not intelligent and they are very likely to confuse the two Trochoidea in
databases.

Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew K. Rindsberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Richard Petit
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 7:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Trochoidea paper

The correct ending for a superfamily name is -oidea. The ending -acea is no
longer acceptable (see Article 29.2).

The fact that a genus-group name has an -oidea termination does not
invalidate it.  However, the Code does not address homonomy between
family-group names and genus-group names.

I would suggest that an inquiry be directed to the Secretariat.  Lots of
luck getting a response.

dick p.

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