Poor taxonomic sampling undermines nomenclatural stability: A reply to Roxo et al. (2019)

• Published in: Zootaxa Vol. 4701; no. 5; p. zootaxa.4701.5.10
• Main Authors: Reis, Roberto E, Britski, Heraldo A, Britto, Marcelo R, Buckup, Paulo A, Calegari, Bárbara B, Camelier, Priscila, Delapieve, Maria Laura S, Langeani, Francisco, Lehmann, Pablo A, Lucinda, Paulo H F, Marinho, Manoela, Martins, Fernanda O, Menezes, Naércio A, Moreira, Cristiano R, DE Pinna, Mário C C, Pavanelli, Carla S, Py-Daniel, Lucia H Rapp, Sousa, Leandro M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand 02.12.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Catfishes; Phylogeny; General
• ISSN: 1175-5334
• DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4701.5.10

A recent study based on genomic data by Roxo et al. (2019) provided a phylogeny of the Loricariidae, the largest catfish family and second largest Neotropical fish family with approximately 1,000 species. The study represents a valuable and innovative contribution for understanding higher-level relationships within the family. The phylogenetic tree inferred by Roxo et al. (2019) thoroughly corroborates the monophyly and relationships of most currently accepted subfamilies of Loricariidae, based on a fair taxon sampling (nearly 14% of the species in the family) representing most genera of each but one of the subfamilies, the Lithogeninae, the sister-group of the remaining members of the family (Pereira & Reis, 2017; Reis et al., 2017). In addition to a hypothesis of relationships, Roxo et al. (2019) also proposed a series of lower-level taxonomic changes, which are deemed premature considering that the taxonomic sampling of the study targeted higher-level clades, and go against one of the pillars of biological classification: nomenclatural stability (e.g., Heterick & Majer, 2018; Beninger & Backeljau, 2019). Here we (1) discuss implications of inadequate taxonomic sampling as a basis for changes in classification of species; (2) explain why the taxonomic sampling design of Roxo et al. (2019) is inadequate for the proposed nomenclatural changes; and (3) advocate that changes to classifications must be grounded on phylogenies with dense sampling of taxa at the relevant level.