Adelgids are sometime conifer insect pests; of particular note is the hemlock woolly adelgid. A large number of species alternate host, forming galls on a spruce one year and migrating to the bark or needles of another kind of conifer the next (fir, hemlock, larch, pine). While preparing a catalog of adelgid species, I discovered that there are actually three names referring to the same family. According to the rules of the zoological nomenclature, when two scientific names apply to the same animal (synonyms), it is the older that takes precedence. Unfortunately, the other two names, published in 1901 and early 1909, both have priority over Adelgidae, published in late 1909. Because Adelgidae is used much more often than the other names, to protect the stability of the nomenclature and the research on this important insect family, I prepared a petition, submitted to the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, to protect the name Adelgidae by suppressing the other two. With the support of many of my fellow aphidologists, I am confident that my request will be granted, but in case it is not, we will have to start using the name Chermaphididae to refer to this family!

Favret C. 2017. Case 3714 – Adelgidae Schouteden, 1909 (Insecta, Hemiptera, Aphidomorpha): proposed conservation by reversal of precedence with Pineini Nüsslin, 1909 and Chermaphidinae Hunter, 1901. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 74(2): 55-59. DOI: 10.21805/bzn.v74.a019