NOMEN: Sternorhynchi Amyot & Serville 1843: 588 [C.-J.-B. Amyot, A. Serville. Histoire naturelle des insectes Hemipteres. – Patis, Libraire Encyclopedique de Roret, 1843: 1-675]
ORIGINAL LISTED MEMBERSHIP (Amyot & Serville 1843): Psyllides + Aphides + Myzoxylides + Aleurodides + Orthezides + Coccides
SENIOR CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYS:
= Plantisuga (ae, es) Dumeril 1805
= Phytadelga (i, es) Dumeril 1805
= Phytathelga (i) Dumeril 1806
JUNIOR
CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYMS:
= Aphidoptera Haeckel 1896
=
Sternorrhynchi: Borner 1934
= Sternorhyncha: Fieber 1851, Metcalf 1951, et al.
= Sternorrhyncha: Meyers & China 1929, Hennig 1953,
Rohdendorf 1962, Bey-Bienko 1964, Schlee 1969, et al.
TYPIFIED NAME IN BASIC FORMAT: Aphis/fg (incl. Psylla, Aleyrodes, Coccus)
TYPIFIED NAME IN USE: Aphidina
MODERN STATUS: junior circumscriptional synonym of Plantisuga Dumeril 1906; belongs to a holophyletic taxon.
Kluge
2010 BioNomina
Dual-Nom
:
The taxon consisting of Gynaptera (aphids), Gallinsecta (coccids), Saltipedes (psyllids), and Scytinelytra (aleyrodids, or whiteflies) is known as Sternorrhyncha, the name often used with the authorship of Amyot & Serville 1843. However, the name they introduced was Sternorhynchi Amyot & Serville 1843, not Sternorrhyncha. Both Sternorhyncha Fieber 1851 and Sternorrhyncha Meyers & China 1929 are subsequent emendations of the name Sternorhynchi and should be used with their own authorships. All three were proposed to refer to the same taxon and are therefore circumscriptional synonyms, being junior synonyms of Plantisuga Dumeril 1805. Generally speaking, using a junior synonym is not against the principles of circumscriptional nomenclature and in some cases may be justified, but in this case such usage caused an unexpected problem.
The taxon Sternorrhyncha is often combined with Auchenorrhyncha into a paraphyletic taxon incorrectly called “Homoptera”; the names ‘Sternorrhyncha’ and ‘Auchenorrhyncha’ imply differently positioned beaks, which some workers take seriously and use this character in keys and phylogenetic analyses. Actually, among the Sternorrhyncha, only Saltipedes (i.e. Psylla/fg) have the beak shifting to the thoracic sternum, while Gynaptera (i.e. Aphis/fg) and Scytinelytra (i.e. Aleyrodes/fg) have it positioned the same way as Auchenorrhyncha, at the head’s base; in Gallinsecta (i.e. Coccus/fg) this character is absent, because males have no beak, and females have no outlined head. Although etymology is no ground for renaming a taxon (see Dual-Nom: 4), in this case applying priority (again, optional in circumscriptional nomenclature) would help avoiding problems caused by the semantics.
The oldest circumscriptional name for the taxon consisting of aphids, coccids, psyllids, and aleyrodids, is Plantisuga Dumeril 1805.