Document of bibliographic reference 325011

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Taxonomic vandalism in malacology: comments on molluscan taxa recently described by N. N. Thach and colleagues (2014–2019)

Abstract

A Vietnamese malacologist Nguyen Ngoc Thach described 235 land snail species and subspecies from Southeast Asia with co-authors; further 11 species were described by an Austrian malacologist Franz Huber in Thach’s publications (2014–2019). Nearly all taxa were described in self-published books and non-peer-reviewed journals. The low quality of the published photographs, imprecise locality data, deficient literature surveys, and the lack of examination of type specimens raise reasonable doubts concerning the validity of these taxa. In this paper we list all land snails described by Thach and colleagues, and comment on approximately half of his taxa based on examination of the literature and type specimens. As a result, 102 of their taxa are moved to the synonymies of previously described taxa. Three additional taxa, described by other authors, are also considered synonyms of known species here: Helix (Ganesella?) lamyi Dautzenberg et Fischer, 1905, Helix (Plectotropis?) chaudroni Bavay et Dautzenberg, 1909, Amphidromus xiengkhaungensis Inkhavilay et Panha, 2017. Further, nine species are moved to other genera: Pearsonia huberi Thach 2016 to Spiraculum, Streptartemon huberi Thach 2016 to Indoartemon, Tropidophora huberi Thach, 2018 to Leptopoma, Microstele huberi Thach, 2018 to Apoecus, Camaena khamducensis Thach et Huber, 2018 to Hemiplecta, Camaena abbasi Thach, 2016 to Asperitas, Mysticarion huberi Thach, 2016 to Megaustenia, Helixarion annhiae Thach et Huber, 2017 to Megaustenia, and Lamprellia huberi Thach, 2018 to Trichochloritis. Chloritis bifoveata vinhensis Thach et Huber, 2018 is elevated to species level. Oospira naggsi callosa Páll-Gergely, nom. nov. is established as a replacement name for Hemiphaedusa huberi Thach, 2016, non Oospira huberi Thach, 2016. Trichochloritis mussonena Páll-Gergely, nom. nov. is established for Mussonena huberi Thach, 2018, non Trichochloritis huberi (Thach, 2018).

Bibliographic citation

Páll-Gergely, B.; Hunyadi, A.; Auffenberg, K. (2020). Taxonomic vandalism in malacology: comments on molluscan taxa recently described by N. N. Thach and colleagues (2014–2019). Folia Malacologica 28(1): 35-76. https://dx.doi.org/10.12657/folmal.028.002

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true