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Kluge
2010 BioNomina
Dual-Nom
 :
The name Insecta, often used for Hexapoda, has a long history of inconsistent
use. “Insecta” is the Latin translation of Aristotle’s εντομον (Entomon)
— a name applied for terrestrial arthropods other than crabs, which Aristotle placed in μαλακόστρακα (Malacostraca). Initially the name Insecta was used for the same
taxon, which is not currently recognized. Priority rules attribute its formal authorship to Linnaeus (Insecta
Linnaeus 1758) who, however, defied the tradition and included crabs within the order Aptera of his class
Insecta (Linnaeus 1735, 1758). So the Linnaean class Insecta approximately corresponded to the taxon now
known as Arthropoda Siebold, 1848, but included also a polychaete,
Scolopendra marina, whereas some eucrustaceans [genera Lepas
sensu Linnaeus 1758 (now Cirripedia) and
Lernaea sensu Linnaeus 1758 (parasitic copepodoids)]
were placed in the class Vermes instead.
Later (e.g., Fabricius
1792–1798, Latreille 1796), the name Insecta was sometimes accepted in the
Linnaean circumscription. The same name was used also in its traditional meaning, i.e., for a taxon which
excludes crabs (e.g., Latreille 1802–1805). Lamarck (1801) applied the name Insecta to winged insects; other
authors applied the name Insecta to taxa of various circumscriptions intermerdiate between the Linnaean and
the Lamarckian. This is how the name Insecta, as used by different authors since Linnaeus, refers to
various taxa:
Insecta: Linnaeus 1758 = Condylopa Latreille
1825 (subequal to Arthropoda Siebold 1848);
Insecta: Lamarck 1801 = Pterodicera Latreille
1802;
Insecta: Latreille 1802 = Tracheata
Haeckel 1866;
Insecta: Leach 1815 = Hexapoda Blainville
1816;
Insecta: Cuvier 1817 = Atelocerata Heymons
1901;
Insecta: Packard 1883 = Dimalata
Sharov 1966;
Insecta: Kingsley 1894 = Opisthogoneata
Pocock 1893;
Insecta: Handschin 1958 = Amyocerata Remington
1955;
Insecta: Chen 1962 = Pleomerentoma Krausse et Wolff
1919.
There was never a consensus usage for the name Insecta: at every single point different workers used it to
refer to different things.
Applied mostly to a class-rank taxon, this non-typified name was thus misused as rank-based (see
Dual-Nom), which caused a great deal of confusion and even made some people
believe in the polyphyly of the Hexapoda for no other reason than nomenclatural change (Kluge 1996a,
1999b, 2000).
There is, though, a widely accepted name,
Hexapoda Blainville 1816, whose original circumscription fits the taxon to which it is applied. Introduced originally in French only (“Hexapodes”), the name should be
available with original authorship in subsequent Latin spelling (see Dual-Nom).
The name
Hexapoda Blainville 1816 should be valid, in spite of the fact that it is preoccupied: its senior
homonym, Hexapoda Latreille 1796, was proposed for an artificial taxon that combined wingless flies
(Nycteribia) with six-legged mite larvae and has not been used since the beginning of the 19th century.
The name
Hexapoda Blainville 1816 has no circumscriptional synonyms and is the only
circumscriptional name applicable to this taxon.
REFERENCES:
Blainville M. H., de
1816. Prodrome d’une nouvelle distribution systématique du règne animal. // Bulletin de la Société
Philomathique de Paris 8: 113–124.
Fabricius J.C. 1792-1799.
Entomologia Systematica emendata et Aucta.
Secundum classes, ordines, genera, species. Adjectus synonymis, locis,
observationibus, descriptionibus. T.1, ps.1 (1792): 1-330; T.2, ps.2
(1792): 1-538; T.2 (1793): 1-519; T.3, ps.1 (1793): 1-487; T.3,
ps.2 (1794): 1-349; T.4 (1794): 1-479; Index alphabeticus (1796-1799). //
Hafniae, Impensis Christ. Gottl. Proft.
Fabricius J.C. 1799. Supplementum Entomologiae
systematicae. // Hafniae, Apud. Proft et Storch: 1-572.
Kluge N. J.
1996a. [Myths in insect systematics and principles of zoological nomenclature]. Entomologicheskoe
Obozrenie 75 (4): 939–944 [In Russian].
Kluge N.J.
1999b. Mitos en sistematica y principos de nomenclatura zoological. / Myths in systematics and principles
of zoological nomenclature. // In: A. Melic, J. J. de Haro, M. Mendes & I. Ribera
(ed.). Evolution y filogenia de Arthropoda. // Boletin de la Sociedad entomologica
aragonesa, 26 (Volumen monografico),. Zaragoza: 347–377.
Kluge N.J.
2000. Sovremennaya sistematika nasekomyh (...). [Modern systematics of insects. Part 1. Principles of
systematics of living organisms and general system of insects with classification of primary wingless and
paleopterous insects]. Saint-Petersburg (Lan’): 1–336. [In Russian].
Lamarck J.B.
1801. Systeme des animaux sans vertebres...[ou tableau genera des classes, des erdres et des genres de ces
animaux; presentant leurs
caracteres essentiels et leur distribution, d'apres la consideration de
leurs ...]. // Paris, Detreville, VIII : 1-432.
Latreille P.A.
1796. Présis des caractères génériques des insectes,
disposés dans un
ordre naturel. // Paris-Brive, Prévôt – F. Bourdeaux, impr.
libr. XI [3] 1-201 [7].
Latreille
P.A. 1802-1805. Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliere des
Crustacés
et des Insectes. // Paris., T.4-14.
Linnaeus C.
1735. Systema Naturae, sive Regna tria Naturae systematice proposita
per Classes, Ordines, Genera, & Species. // Ex Typographia Joannis
Willhem de Groot.
Linnaeus C. 1758.
Systema Naturae per Regna tria Naturae, secundum
classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis,
locis. Tomus I. // A photograph faccimile of the first volume of the tenth edition (1758). London, Brit.
Mus. (N.H.). 1-824.
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the oldest and generally accepted name of a holophyletic
taxon (see Kluge 1999,
2000).