Acraea violae vs Acraea terpsicore
Dr Seow, Les and anyone else who's interested in taxonomic nomenclature.
I consulted Dr Michael Braby about the issue of A. violae vs A. terpsicore where there were recent papers 1995-2002 by various authors debating on the updated naming of Tawny Coster. Here is Dr Braby's reply. I am asking him for the papers that he quoted, so that we can also understand what is the debate about. The latest paper by Honey and Scoble (2002) appears to conclude that there is no definite affirmation that Tawny Coster is Acraea terpsicore
The earlier papers by Ackery and so on, postulated that the correct name should be A. terpsicore.
What are your views regarding what Dr Braby said below?
Regarding nomenclature, Ackery et al. (1995) and Pierre and Bernaud (1997) considered Acraea violae (Fabricius, 1775) the same species as A. terpsicore. Since Papilio terpsicore Linnaeus, 1758 is the oldest available name it is therefore a senior synonym of Papilio violae Fabricius, 1775. Honey and Scoble (2002) were not able to trace the types of P. terpsicore and concluded that its identity remains uncertain, although they acknowledged that P. violae is very likely a junior synonym of P. terpsicore. Ackery et al. (1995) revised the concept of A. terpsicore to include only the species known from the Oriental Region: previously, A. terpsicore was confused with the African species A. eponina Cramer, 1780 and was also considered conspecific with A. neobule Doubleday, [1847] from northern Africa (e.g. Lawson & Duodu 1984). There are also discrepancies in the spelling of the species group name, either as A. terpsicore or A. terpsichore (e.g. Linnaeus 1764; Ewete 1990; The Natural History Museum 2012).Linnaeus (1758) used P. terpsicore,which was also the spelling adopted byAckery et al. (1995 p. 246) and Pierre and Bernaud (1997). I can send the relevant references if required.
