Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 267 PROPOSED USE OF THE PLENARY POWERS TO VALIDATE THE GENERIC NAME " PHRYNOSOMA " WIEGMANN, 1828 (CLASS REPTILIA, ORDER SQUAMATA), A NAME PLACED ON THE " OFFICIAL LIST OF GENERIC NAMES IN ZOOLOGY " BY THE RULING GIVEN IN " OPINION " 92 By HOBART M. SMITH {Department of Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, U.S.A.) (Commission Reference : Z.N.(S.) 399) The purpose of the present application is to ask the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to use its Plenary Powers for the purpose of validating the generic name Phrynosoma Wiegmann, 1828 (Class ReptUia). This seems to me to be important for two reasons : First, this name was placed on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology thirty years ago by the Ruling given in the Commission's Opinion 92 (1926, Smithson. misc. Coll. 73 (No. 4) : 3-4). Second, there is associated with this generic name a considerable hterature of an anatomical, histological and ecological nature as well as of a taxonomic character. The facts bearing on this case are set out below. 2. The nominal genus Phrynosoma Wiegmann, 1828 {Isis (Oken) 1828 : 367) was established with three included nominal species but with no designated or indicated type species. From these included species the first to be selected as the tjrpe species of this genus was Lacerta orbicularis Linnaeus, 1758 {Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 206), that species having been so selected by Fitzinger in 1843 (Syst. Rept. : 17). At this point it will be convenient to deal with a question connected with the interpretation of the above nominal species which needs to be cleared out of the way before consideration is given to the senior synonyms of the generic name Phrynosoma Wiegmann. It must be noted that, when in 1758 Linnaeus established this nominal species, he supplemented the short Latin diagnosis provided by citing references to Seba (: pi. 83, figs. 1, 2) and to Hernandez. He gave the locality for this species as Mexico. To the species in the genus Lacerta standing immediately before L. orbicularis, Linnaeus then gave the name Lacerta hispida (: 205-206), for which he cited two references, the first, to his own work the Museum Adolphi Friderici, the second to Seba. In the case of Seba, Linnaeus cited two plates, first, Seba's pi. 109, fig. 6, second, Seba's pi. 83, figs. 1, 2. It wUl be seen therefore that already by this date Linnaeus' ideas about his species Lacerta orbicularis were Bull. zool. Nomencl. Vol. 13, Part 9. September 1957.
Proposed use of the plenary powers to validate the generic name "Phrynosoma" Wiegmann, 1828 (Class Reptilia, Order Squamata), a name placed on the "Official List of Generic Names in Zoology" by the ruling given in "Opinion"
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