Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 64(1) March 2007 75 OPINION 2169 (Case 3297) Sphyraena aciis Lacepede, 1803 (currently Tylosurus aciis; Teleostei, belonidae): reinstated as a valid name Abstract. The Commission has ruled that the name Sphyraena acus Lacepede, 1803, is reinstated for a nearly worldwide species of needlefish. The name was suppressed and placed on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Specific Names in Zoology in Opinion 900 (April 1970). Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; belonidae; Tylosurus acus; needlefish. Ruling (1) Under the plenary power it is hereby ruled that the ruling in Opinion 900(1) is amended to delete the name acus Lacepede, 1803, as published in the binomen Sphyraena acus, from the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Specific Names in Zoology. (2) The name acus Lacepede, 1803, as published in the binomen Sphyraena acus, is hereby placed on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology. History of Case 3297 An application to reinstate the name Sphyraena acus Lacepede, 1803 for a nearly worldwide species of needlefish was received from Bruce B. CoUette (National Marine Fisheries Service Systemalics Laboratory, National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S. A) and N.V. Parin (P.P. Shirshov Institute oj Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) on 26 August 2003. After correspondence the case was published in BZN 62; 232-236 (December 2005). The title, abstract and keywords of the case were published on the Commis-sion's website. A comment in support of the case from members of the Committee on Names of Fishes (a joint Committee of the American Fisheries Society and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists) was published in BZN 63; 48^9. Decision of the Commission On 1 September 2006 the members of the Commission were invited to vote on the proposals published in BZN 62: 234. At the close of the voting period on 1 December 2006 the votes were as follows: Affirmative votes -25: Bock, Bogutskaya, Bouchet, Brothers, Grygier, Halliday, Kerzhner, Kottelat, Krell, Kullander, Lamas, Lim, Macpherson, Mahnert, Mawatari, MinelH, Pape, Papp, Patterson, Pyle, Rosenberg, Song, Stys, van Tol and Zhang. Negative votes -3: Alonso-Zarazaga, Fautin and Ng. Voting against, Alonso-Zarazaga and Ng stressed the importance of zoologists following the rulings of the Commission; had this been done following the ruling in Opinion 900 the nomenclatural confusion outlined in the application would have been avoided.
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