Date of publication 1895

For details follow the given link

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/180173#page/159/mode/1up

Dear Muhammad, thanks for your answer. Anyhow, in that volume one of several species called atriceps has been namend by Hampson, but unfortunately not in the combination with the genus Simplicula.

Best regards, Klaus

I could not find Simplicula in the reference to the Fauna of British India that Muhammad provided, and the only atriceps in the index is a geometrid.

The Global Lepidoptera Names Index considers Simplicula Hampson to be a valid name, but does not provide a reference, a publication date, nor a type species! That entry was last updated in 2003.

A quick Google search yielded several additional online databases that likewise failed to provide additional information.

And Poole's world catalog of Noctuidae (s.l.) treated Simplicia, but no reference to Simplicula could be found. He included four species named atriceps by Hampson: in Acrapex, 1910a: 319, pl. 144, fig. 13 (Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, India); in Bryolymnia, 1910a: 122, pl. 160, fig. 12 (Guatemala); in Enispa, 1910b: 60, pl. 150, fig. 19 (Nigeria); and in Carmara (originally described in Gyrognatha), 1893: 32, 134, pl. 168, fig. 10, a synonym of Carmara subcervina Walker [1863] (Borneo, Sarawak). That reference is Poole, Robert W. 1989. Lepidopterorum Catalogus (New Series), Fascicle 118. 3 volumes. [Let me know if you need additional information on the citations, or even a scan of the pages with several species of Simplicia, if that genus may be involved in your quest--at least there are data for that one!)

Interestingly, a 1994 paper of corrections and additions to Poole's catalog did not mention Simplicula either! I only have the first of what may have been several papers with corrections: Steiner, Axel. 1994. Beitr. Ent. 44(1994)1: 211-229,

It might help in the search if you can tell us how you came upon the names and what geographic area your moth might occur in.

You may be dealing with a nomen nudum, so it will help if you can provide more detail about the circumstances of your finding this name.

I love a good nomenclatural mystery, and this one is a real head-scratcher. Sorry I couldn't come up with a definitive answer for you.

Good luck,

Julian

Julian P Donahue

Dear Julian, many thanks for your excessive answer. Anyhow it exactly shows my problem - there is no trace for the original publication of Simplicula Hampson, nor the combination with atriceps Hampson. I found the name in the catalogue Insecta.pro (https://insecta.pro/taxonomy/722381) and later in the IRMNG for synonyms (https://www.irmng.org/homonyms.php?tRank=180&start_letter=S) as "uncertain". As a malacologist I want to clarify the (possible?) homonymy with Simplicula Ponte-Lira & Alonso, 1997. Perhaps we have to deal with a unjustified emendation?

Dear Klaus, did you mean Simplicala Beck,1996, a member of the Erebidae?

Ulrich Wieneke

Dear Uli, thanks for your note.

No, I really search for Simplicula Hampson.

Well, Klaus, it remains a mystery about where the name Simplicula came from. I just checked Neave's Nomenclature Zoologicaus, 1758 through 1994, and there is no trace of it, but you may wish to double-check my search. Of course, someone may have found and resurrected that name since 1994. That site is here: , and I am attaching an image of page 199 from the 1758-1935 volume.

I am reaching out to a taxonomist colleague at the USDA/National Museum of Natural History, to see if anyone there can be of any assistance.

And in order to have an unjustified emendation, you have to be able to find and cite the reference where someone specifically refers to the moth with an incorrect spelling or emendation, with or without an explanation. A nomen nudum ("naked name"), however, is just that--a name floating around in the ether that is not properly attached to any specific taxon according to Articles 12 & 13 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (depending on the date of the name), or even a nomen oblitum ("forgotten name"), as defined in Article 23.9 of the Code.

The hunt goes on.

Julian

Julian P Donahue

Dear Julian, many thanks again. I'll search for that name and combination after 1994 - till 1997, as after it will become a homonym of Simplicula Ponte-Lira & Alonso, 1997.

Best regards, Klaus

Dear All,

Donald Hobern was so kind to give me the information below. So it seems quite sure, that we have no homonymy for teh molluscan genus Simplicula.

"Dra Klaus,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Natural History Museum's card index of Lepidoptera names that was ultimately digitised as the Global Lepidoptera Names Index or Lepindex was far from perfect as the foundation for the species list we all wish we had for Lepidoptera. It certainly included a fair number of manuscript names that various authors had attached to specimens in NHM. In such cases, the cards usually contained no information other than the name itself and the author of the label but no necessary indication that the name had not been published. Sometimes the cards include subsequent annotations that make their status clearer.

The two cards in question should be accessible to you by these links:

https://sfg.taxonworks.org/system/images/image_files/000/067/217/original/fc_noctuoidea_noctuidae_hypeninae_232a_261969.jpg?1500516448

https://sfg.taxonworks.org/system/images/image_files/000/515/224/original/fc_noctuoidea_noctuidae_hypeninae_232a_261970.jpg?1500702097

The former of these (for the genus) includes a penciled "MS" and there is no reference for either name. I believe therefore that these were never formally published names. I am removing them from the current catalogue and in time they should disappear from some other web sources. There is no sign that Hampson did in fact publish Simplicula as a genus name. If he had done so, I would definitely have expected to be able to find it in BHL.

Very best wishes,

Donald

-- Donald Hobern / [email protected]

Dear Klaus,

Indeed, the fact that Simplicula is an unpublished manuscript name takes it out of consideration as a potential senior homonym. In this age of automated databases, it did not help that the name proliferated on the Internet yet nobody took the time to verify its validity.

This has been fun.

Julian