Emilio,
Clench did not designate a lectotype because it would have been improper to
do so.  I'm not sure where Poey's collection is, if it's even extant, but
it's probably not at MCZ.

The specimen that is to be designated the lectotype should be the figured
specimen (if the species was figured) or one from the original lot (the
figured specimen probably is from the original lot) (cotypes or syntypes).
The difficult task at hand if you can not determine which specimen was
figured, etc. is which one of the syntypes to use as a lectotype.  To
determine this a researcher should examine all material from as many
institutions as possible.  This is an enormous amount of work and takes a
lot of time (and some money, postage, etc.).  This is one reason why
researchers don't crank out one monograph after another.  There's a lot of
downtime.

If there is any doubt whether a potential lectotype exists in another
institution which you do not have access to at the time, it's best to leave
it alone.  Case in point .....several years ago two terrestrial species
from NW India had lectotypes selected from the Indian Museum in Calcutta.
They had both been described by Benson.  What the later authors did not
know is that those specimens could not have possibly been syntypes (and so,
seen by Benson).  Their line of reasoning was .....the species were from
India, Benson worked in India, the Indian Museum had specimens from Benson,
they must be syntypes.  Wrong!  Benson collected those later, well after
the species were described.  All the syntypes are in the British Museum.
The lectotype designations are not necessarily valid and this causes
problems for the next person.......me.  Bummer.

Next question to pose.....what happens when a researcher has exhausted all
the sources for potential lectotypes and none fit.....what does she/he do
then????

First one to send the correct answer gets free admission to the exhibition
hall at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Kurt


 Why did he not simply select a lectotype?
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>--
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>Later,
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>Emilio Jorge Power