which is akin to a first name such as William or Julia. The generic name is always capitalized, e.g., Conus, Strombus or Arca, but the specific name which comes after the genus name is not, e.g., princeps, pilsbryi or floridensis. It is also customary to add the name of the person who described and christened the species; thus the Queen Conch of southern Florida and the West Indies is known as Strombus gigas Linné. If subspecies or geographical races are recognized, the name may appear, for example, as Melongena corona perspectiva Pilsbry or M. corona corona Gmelin, the latter being the typical race. We have employed subgenera throughout the book as center headings. They may also be written into the name in parentheses: Janthina (Violetta) globosa Swainson. It is wrong to put a generic synonym in the middle of the name, as Busycon (Fulgur) carica Gmelin.
Some authorities may put the author’s name in parentheses, for example, Modulus modulus (Linné). This means that the species was first described under another genus, in this case, not Modulus but Trochus. Unfortunately, as our science becomes more advanced, parentheses must be used in the majority of the species, and their usefulness becomes offset by the tax on one’s memory as to whether or not they are to be employed in the various species. Modern workers are attempting to abandon this useless frill of nomenclature, and in this book they are not used. Dates following the author’s names refer to the date of publication and serve the useful purpose of tracking down the original reference. It should be noted that the “double i” ending is no longer used in species names (not smithii, but smithi).
Name changing. There is nothing more annoying than having a well-known and frequently used scientific name changed; and the field of mollusks seems to be having its lion’s share of tossing out of old friends for utter strangers. There are two basic kinds of changes—zoological and nomenclatorial. Everyone will condone the former, for it is obvious, as our knowledge increases, that certain genera or even species will be found to be mixtures, and this necessitates separating and applying new names. In this book, for example, Fasciolaria gigantea is changed to Pleuroploca gigantea. The Horse Conch, P. gigantea, does not have characters like those of the tulip shells, and it cannot be put in the genus Fasciolaria with such species as F. tulipa Linné and F. hunteria Perry. For the same reason, what has been called by many workers Ostrea virginica is now Crassostrea virginica. Venus mercenaria is now Mercenaria mercenaria.
Nomenclatorial name changing is hardest for everyone to accept. As not infrequently happens, a species may be given several different names inadvertently by various authors. The International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature has set up an extensive set of rules; among these is the rule of priority by which the earliest valid name is chosen if several names are available. Unfortunately, the earliest name may have been overlooked
