Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 247 C//y?0A//5CUVlER/A^DESMAREST, 1814 (OSTEICHTHYES, PERCIFORMES, POMACENTRIDAE): PROPOSAL TO PLACE ON OFFICIAL LIST OF GENERIC NAMES IN ZOOLOGY, AND THAT GENERIC NAMES ENDING IN -CHROMIS BE RULED TO BE MASCULINE. Z.N.(S.)2329 By Reeve M. Bailey {Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.), C. Richard Robins (School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33149, U.S.A.) & P. Humphry Greenwood (British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K.) The history of the generic name Chromis has been reviewed by Emery, 1975, who concluded that: (1) Chromis dates from Cuvier in Desmarest, 1814, p. 88 (erroneously spelled Desmarets throughout); (2) The type species of Chromis is Sparus chromis Linnaeus, 1 758, p. 280 by original designation; (3) Chromis is a name of variable gender, although the majority of authors have regarded it as masculine; (4) Cuvier, 1815, by inclusion of the species castanea and nilotica, considered Chromis to be feminine; (5) This gender apphes only to Chromis; the gender of all other generic names ending in -chromis should be deter-mined individually. 2. We agree with the correctness of Emery's review of the problem except for a minor notation that the Committee on Names of Fishes of the American Fisheries Society treated Chromis as feminine in its 1960 edition and as masculine in its 1970 edition (Bailey et al., 1960, 1970). Actually the committee was inconsis-tent in 1 960, using cyanea and multilineata (feminine) but insolatus (mascuhne) for included species with adjectival endings, the last a past participle correctly treated as adjectival. 3. Emery, 1975, p. 81, commented that although we and others agreed with the technical correctness of his position, we did not agree with his suggested course of action. 4. The problem stems not only from the current confusion on the gender of Chromis but from the wide use in ichthyology of generic names ending in -chromis, the seeming logic that all should have the same gender, and the fact that these genera have been over-whelmingly treated as masculine. Recently, Kullander, 1977, des-cribed Papiliochromis and designated its gender as feminine. This name is a junior synonym of Microgeophagus Axelrod according to Robins & Bailey (in press). Thus, without a specific uniform ruling by the Commission on all names ending in -chromis, we may antici-Bult. zool. No mend. vol. 37, part 4, December 1980
Chromis Cuvier in Desmarest, 1814 (Osteichthyes, Perciformes, Pomacentridae): proposal to place on Official List of Generic Names in Zoology, and that generic names ending in -chromis by ruled to be masculine. Z.N.(S.) 2329
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