Hylopetes magistri, new name for Hylopetes debruijni Reumer & Van den Hoek Ostende, 2003, preoccupied

Abstract

In 2003, we published a new species of Hylopetes, H. debruijni, from the early Pleistocene locality of Tegelen, The Netherlands (Reumer and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2003). This publication appeared in a special volume in honor of Hans de Bruijn, which contained the proceedings of congress in Utrecht (17–19 May 2001) on the occasion of the 70th birthday of our esteemed colleague. While still in press, our publication was overtaken by a paper by Mein and Ginsburg (2002), who, unaware of our manuscript, also named a species of Hylopetes in honor of Hans de Bruijn. The type locality of H. debruijni Mein & Ginsburg, 2002, is the middle Miocene fissure filling La Grive M in France. The French material clearly represents a different species than the Dutch finds. Therefore, we conclude that, unfortunately, we published a name that was already preoccupied. Daxner-H¨ ock (2004) tentatively assigned the Dutch species to her new genus Neopetes, creating the new combination N. debruijni (Reumer and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2003). This, however, is of no consequence to the homonomy of the two species, as the ICZN specifically defines a primary homonym as identical species-group names for different taxa originally combined with the same generic name. As a primary homonym, H. debruijni Reumer & Van den Hoek Ostende, 2003, is permanently invalid (ICZN 1999:art 57.2). Therefore, we propose Hylopetes magistri new name for Hylopetes debruijni Reumer & Van den Hoek Ostende, 2003, preoccupied by Hylopetes debruijni Mein & Ginsburg, 2002. We consider assignation of the species magistri to the genus Neopetesas proposed by Daxner-H¨ ock (2004) premature, as this would first require direct comparison of the Dutch material to the type species of that genus. The specific name (magistri *Corresponding author. from Latin = of the master) mirrors our original intent to name the species after Hans de Bruijn, and stresses that the maestro has been instrumental in shaping the career of many palaeontologists, both in The Netherlands and abroad