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Record W4412062539 · doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5659.4.2

The nomenclature of the Australasian dung beetle genera Mentophilus Castelnau, 1840 and Tesserodon Hope, 1837 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae)

2025· article· en· W4412062539 on OpenAlexaff
Mario Cupello, Patrice Bouchard, M.G. Hart, Maxwell V. L. Barclay

Bibliographic record

VenueZootaxa · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldEarth and Planetary Sciences
TopicScarabaeidae Beetle Taxonomy and Biogeography
Canadian institutionsAgriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Fundersnot available
KeywordsScarabaeinaeScarabaeidaeBiologyDung beetleNomenclatureEcologyZoologyTaxonomy (biology)

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Mentophilus Castelnau, 1840 and Tesserodon Hope, 1837 are scarabaeine genera endemic to Australia. Whereas the two species of Mentophilus are restricted to the western coast of the country, the 13 species of Tesserodon are much more widespread. The taxonomy and biogeography of these and other Australasian groups have been scrutinized over the past 50 years, but nomenclatural issues still persist. Here, we address them and conclude that: (1) the name Mentophilus hollandiae Castelnau, 1840, in use since 1974, is actually unavailable and the valid name for the species is Mentophilus carinatus (Reiche, 1841); (2) under Article 23.9.1 of the Code, precedence between the objective synonyms Aulacium Dejean, 1833, nomen oblitum, and Mentophilus Castelnau, 1840, nomen protectum (type species: Aulacium carinatum Reiche, 1841), is reverted, and the validity of Mentophilus is so preserved; (3) the grammatical gender of Tesserodon is masculine, not neuter as treated since the mid-20th century, and adjectival specific names in the nominative case must change their endings accordingly; (4) the name Anisodon Hope, 1837 (nec Lartet, 1851, in Mammalia, nec Rosen, 1905, in Serpentes) is unavailable for failing to comply with Articles 11.5 and 11.6, and so does not threaten the validity of its synonym Tesserodon; (5) the correct original spelling is Tessarodon, a justified emendation established by the original author in an erratum, Tesserodon being formally an incorrect original spelling, thus invalid. To preserve stability, a Case is to be submitted to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature for the conservation of the incorrect spelling; in the meantime, prevailing usage is to be respected. A checklist is presented for all the species of Mentophilus and Tesserodon including information on synonymy, name-bearing types, type localities, and distribution.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.040
Threshold uncertainty score0.079

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0020.001
Science and technology studies0.0020.002
Scholarly communication0.0010.001
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.007
GPT teacher head0.199
Teacher spread0.192 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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