Annotating Publications

Introduction

This section contains procedures and conventions used for annotating taxonomic acts within publications.

General Notes

• All annotation text must be in lowercase except for proper nouns, taxonomic names, and after certain special cases where periods are used (i.e. original descriptions of genera). The first letter of an annotation is not capitalized.
• When a taxon name is misspelled, include only the taxonomic acts that use the misspelled name and include misspelling in the annotation text
• The pages for an annotation are always listed from first (lowest) page to last (highest) page.
• Rank the individual acts within the annotation text according to level of importance
  • original description > generic transfer > description > diagnosis > synonymy or jr. synonym > key to {group} > keyed > type information or lectotype designation > ...
• The page number used for an annotation is the first page on which a taxonomic act appears.
  • An original description begins with the header containing the newly described name of a descriptive block.
• For keys, every page on which a taxon is keyed is listed in the pages for an annotation.
• If a key, catalog, revision, etc. is limited in scope by geographic region, sex of specimens, or any other faction, include the qualified terms in the annotation text.
  • Common qualified annotations are: key to the Nearctic species for males, catalog of New World genera, etc.

Annotation Text Reference

Taxonomic Act	Annotation Text	Comments
original description of a species-group taxon	original description
original description of a genus-group taxon	original description. Type: {type species w/ author}, by monotypy and/or original designation or designated by {author} ({year})	Examples: original description. Type: Embioctonus setiger Masner, by monotypy and original designation; original description. Type: Anteris bilineata Thomson, designated by Muesebeck & Walkley (1956)
original description of a family-group taxon	original description
removed from synonymy with another taxon	removed from synonymy with {taxon w/ author}
species-group taxon is transferred to another genus	generic transfer
taxon is redescribed	description
taxon is diagnosed	diagnosis
taxon is senior synonym of taxon (new synonyms only)	synonymy
taxon is junior synonym of taxon (new synonyms only)	junior synonym of {valid taxon w/ author}
key is provided for subordinate taxa	key to {group}	Examples: key to species, key to tribes of Madagascar, etc.
taxon is keyed	keyed
primary type of a species-group taxon is identified	type information
primary type of a species-group taxon is lost	type lost
primary type of a species-group taxon is destroyed	type destroyed

Taxonomic Act Glossary

description

The act of describing the morphological or other salient characters of a taxon.

diagnosis

The act of defining characters that distinguishes a taxon from another taxon.

junior synonym

A taxon that is treated to be the same as another taxon in which the later taxon is older and considered to be the valid name.

primary type

The name-bearing type for a species-group taxon, which includes holotype, lectotype, neotype, and syntype.

Resources

• Annotation Template (Windows-only): File:Annotations.xls