Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Square Brackets around Date

Posted by tristram on 08-05-2011 18:44
#1

Browsing the checklist at Dipterist Forum I came across things like this:

Anasimyia interpuncta (Harris, [1776])

I understand the reason for the parentheses (..) around the authority, but what do the square brackets [..] around the date signify?

Posted by Paul Beuk on 08-05-2011 18:58
#2

The date was arbitrarily fixed as the earliest certain date of publication. For example, a three issue volume has the date of publication on the frontispiece that was issued with the third issue as 1800. There is evidence that the first issue was published in 1790, but there is no evidence when the second issue was published. The earliest certain date is then set as the same tdate the third issue was published and the dat may then be given as [1800].

Posted by tristram on 08-05-2011 19:12
#3

Thanks Paul, I thought it might be something along those lines.