>>well done O.H. if that doesn't get jeff out of the wordsmith closet, i don't know if he'll ever emerge.
>>
>>curious, isn't it "species novum" the singular form?
>>
>>matt

Hi Matt!

Well, as WW pointed out, my example wasn't the best in the world. It really should have been "comb. nov." for new combination since it wasn't a new species, but just a subspecies reassigned to a previously existing species within the same genus.
To illustrate "sp. nov.", I should have used Drymarchon caudomaculatus (sp. nov.), because that was, in fact, a new species within that genus.

The only point that I'm not clear on is if you assign what was previously a subspecific naming to species status (a status elevation, such as in D. couperi. Is that then considered a new species, since it was not a species before? I understand that couperi is probably not a good example since it was used for the very same animal as a species name under Coluber couperi in a now obsolete taxon. But had that name never been previously assigned as a species, but had been used as a subspecies name, would it then be considered a new species? I don't think I've ever seen it done...just wondering.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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