ICZN Case 3407
Have you heard of the recent debate that has been roiling the biology world? There has been an application pending with the ICZN to reclassify the fruit fly genus. The famous Drosophila melanogaster, subject of so much genetics research over the years, would become Sophophora melanogaster. As you can imagine, this upset genetics researchers almost as much as the Bronotosaurus rename upset 6 year old boys.
Many years ago, I took a biology course where we raised Drosophila. We kept them in tubes and fed them bananas. The larval stage is not terribly attractive, but the flies themselves were kind of neat looking. At the time I could tell the males and the females apart without a magnifier. This we a useful ability when performing crosses. I don’t think that my eyes are good enough at the close work to do that anymore.
The ICZN voted 23-5 against protecting the existing name. That means that the rename is probably going to happen. You can read the full decision here.
