www.cowries.info

[Philipp]

I will not do it. The question is purely hypothetical. What will happen, when I am offering on ebay tigris philippi, new ssp! I will probably get more than usually, I know. The question is whether it can be banned or not. Or in other words: is there a law that forbids it to invent (to fudge) subspecies?

PHILIPP

[Notocypraea]

Knowledgable collectors would probably avoid you like the plague!

[Sleepycat]

Many years ago I could not get any action taken (because I was not a party to a transaction) against a seller who was continuing to call a vitellus a leucodon even after being told it was a vitellus.

Misleading trading is against the law in many countries, but difficult to police across borders. But if you called it a new variety I don't know if anything could be done. The ICZN doesn't regulate variety names so anyone who wants can make up their own at any time.

[Philipp]

The ICZN doesn’t gover names for groups below ssp, I have read here http://iczn.org/content/does-iczn-govern-names-entities-below-species-level-such-subspecies-or-populations. But I bring a fictive new subspecies into play which would be introduced outside any ICZN typical structure, e.g. via Ebay. Despite of it, it is in my opinion legal and nobody can claim a fraud. ICZN, the scientific society and the market can ignore it but it is still legal. Fortunately this behavior will not be successful at the end because - Notocypraea wrote it - your shop will be banned by collectors. Indeed? I think so, because there are not so many false names on market as it could be possible.

[felix]

like other salesmen, shell dealers need to create products. The most archaic cases merely make excessive use of terms such as "whow" and "outstanding", "high-breed" or "for advanced collectors", always depending on their respective evolutionary status. Some of you may remember that I used to call blue top-sparsely spotted helvolas "starry night" form. Then, the above-mentioned league of wannabe dealers on ebay began to pick up the term, and consequently, regular helvolas and other crap got advertised as "starry night".

Well, I then changed the name to a variety name helvola "vincenti" (after the song by Don McLean which goes "starry starry night, paintshop pallette's blue and grey" which was descriptive and had a historical background - I thought that was very clever, and hey, I was young and needed the money). These shells sold quite well and at ok prices, but not because there was that silly "forma-name" behind it, but because those shells were stunning and still underpriced if you think about it.

In my opinion, the ICZN is not at all helpful in the study of seashells and nudibranchs. To me, the abrogation of varietal names is the opposite of what taxonomy is about - giving names to things. More and more Taxonomists have started again to use and introduce forma/varietal names to facilitate communication. In the next cowry-book I will again use those forma names that make sense, like I have done in the past.

not sure though if vincenti will make it.

[Philipp]

[EmberCowrie]

Is there a similar condition exist for the stoldia form immaculata (stoldia with no dosal blotch). Originally I thought it was just a nickname that I had made up when I got such a shell (I don't recall even telling anyone it). Then I noticed other sellers using the same name for the same type of shell (guess great minds think alike). So it is really a valid form, or just a nickname made up for sales purposes.