Ah no, Art, the conditional name is something the ICZN has been trying to stamp out. Problem is, no one thought to prohibit it until our lifetime, so you could get away with it until 1961. Here's a made-up example: Suppose an anthropologist decided, on the basis of diet, that humanity (Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758) evolved from flying pigs (Sus volatilis Weil, 1998), but didn't have the evidence he needed to prove his ideas. Under the old rules, he could propose Hominisus alatus, or the winged man-pig, as a conditional name for the hypothetical intermediate stage awaiting only the discovery of bones. Most of the real names that taxonomists have proposed conditionally have been less egregious than this case, but not all (the scientific name for the yeti and several kinds of sea serpents come to mind), and I for one am glad that they are now against the rules. Andrew K. Rindsberg Geological Survey of Alabama Heart of Dixie