Scientific Names: Nonstandard Examples (Basics Part 2)

Occasionally when you see fish made available in the hobby you will see scientific names that seem to violate the traditional rules as outlined by Carl Linneaus. The name will seem inconsistent with the traditional binomial nomenclature. Usually when you see this, what has happened is one of two things, either the organism being sold has yet to be formally described by science or generational and/or location data is being added. Lets go over some common examples:

1. L: Example L236. In this example you will see a very pretty black and white pleco catfish being sold. This definitely violates the Linnean binomial nomenclature but the reason for this is that the hobby has acted faster then the zoologists can study and describe the species. The L stands for Loricariidae. Loricariidae is the family that the discoverer of the pleco thought it belonged to. The number 236 in the example stands for the chronological tracking code assigned to the organisms as reported to a German magazine named DATZ. DATZ was the first organization to propose such a designation so that interested parties could talk about and sell the organism while it was waiting for formal description by Zoologists. Once the appropriate scientific study has been done on the species it is formally given a name. In the case of L236 its new name is Hypancistrus seideli.
2. CW: Example CW010. In this example you will see a very pretty gold striped Coryodoras catfish. Again this designation definitely violates the Linnean binomial nomenclature but again the reason for this is that he hobby has acted faster then the Zoologists can study and describe the species. The CW stand for Coryodoras World. This is a reference to the web site of Ian Fuller and it was used to replace the C numbering system originally proposed by DATZ magazine in Germany. Like the DATZ system the 010 is a conological tracking code assigned to the organisms as reported to the web site. This allows hobbyists to distinguish it from other Coryodoras that have yet to be formally described by Zoologists. As of yet (727/26), this species has yet to be formally classified and given a binomial name.
3. cf: Example Enterochromis cf. paropuis. In this example the “cf.” designation stand for the latin word confer. Scientists use this designation when a plant, animal, or fossil is hard to identify. This designation can also be used as a placeholder or a temporary name when the scientist believes that it looks similar to a previously described species but isn’t certain. Finally it can be used when dealing with uncertainty. The uncertainty springs from whether or not the species is already described or something close but completely unknown to science. In the case of the above example, all members currently in the hobby comes from one single female and the eggs that were rescued when she was caught in a net on Lake Victoria in the Mwanza Gulf region. Since the lake was in the process of a well described ecological collapse it is unlikely we will get any new specimens. So there is uncertainty here as to if it actually is a new species or if it belongs to a previously described species.
4. sp: Example Geophagus sp. Alto Sinu. In this example the “sp.” designations stands for a singular, unspecified species. It is given when the species in unknown but their is confidence on the Genus it belongs to. In this example, the Alto Sinu tells us where it was that this organism was originally collected from. Alto means upper in spanish and Sinu is the river that it was collected from. So the name lacking still formal description by Zoologists who must first study it, tells us that researchers are confident that this fish belongs to the Geophagus genus and that it was found in the upper Sinu River.