JOURNAL POLICY ON NAMES OF AEDINE MOSQUITO GENERA AND SUBGENERA

to promote stability and universality of scientific names in taxonomy, using the Linnean binomial system (genus and species), to ensure that the valid name of each species is distinct within each unique genus, according to the rules of priority. In the context of biosystematics, the code does not restrict freedom of taxonomic thought or action. Through the code, nomenclature shows the rank accorded to any formal group of animals (e.g., family or tribe, genus or subgenus, species or subspecies) leaving ample scope for informal cat-egories such as species complexes, phylogenetic clades, and other groups. All classifications and reclassifications above the species level depend on subjective interpretation of taxo-nomic evidence, so uniformity is arrived at through consensus among systematists, and eventually adopted by the rest of the scientific community. Reclassifications that result in changing the names of com-mon pests and vectors, for which there is extensive older literature, inevitably create considerable confusion among teachers, students, and researchers, with communication dif-ficulties and financial implications for republishing education-al materials, keys, catalogs, and management of databases. When reinterpreting the relationships between species and groups of applied importance, systematists have responsibility to limit the impact on nomenclature. Such caution was not exercised when the majority of known species and subgenera of Aedes mosquitoes were transferred to the restored genus Ochlerotatus based on taxonomic characters that few other workers have examined.1 Many investigators adopted the new name combinations without fully understanding the rea-sons. Savage and Strickman2 gave a comprehensive argument against splitting Ochlerotatus from Aedes, whereas Black3 de-fended this step. The latest proposal by Reinert and others4 to elevate dozens of additional subgenera of Aedini to generic status creates a further dilemma for journal editors and au-thors. Mosquito systematists and cladists remain divided on the appropriateness of these changes. Anyone can join the debate a