OK, tracked it down. As BIC said, the generic name Nardoa was first used for a group of Echinoderms, specifically by Gray (1840). Therefore Nardoa Gray 1842 (snake) becomes a junior homonym of Nardoa Gray 1840 (Echinoderm). That means that the name Nardoa is not available for anything other than the Echinoderms for which it was originally coined in 1840.

>>This would at least partly explain why the use of Nardoa was questioned and therefore always put to synonymy. If I understand the code of the ICZN right, the synonym becomes unavailable for python species for all times and should be removed from every synonymy list for python species, right?

Not quite.

*Any* name used for a given species IS a synonym of the currently correct name, so for instance Nardoa crassa remains a synonym of Liasis fuscus irrespective of the fact that Nardoa Gray 1842 non Gray 1840 is not an available name for any pythonid snake.

However, you could not now use Nardoa as a valid generic name for any genus of snakes, irrespective of whether or not the echinoderm genus Nardoa Gray 1840 is currently regarded as valid or as a synonym of something else.

I'll see if I can find any further details when I get back to the office tomorrow.

As an aside, Nardoa appears to be a popular generic name: there is also a Poriferan (sponge) genus Nardoa Schmidt 1862, which now has exactly the same standing as Nardoa Gray 1842, namely as a junior homonym.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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