Parnassius phoebus is phoebus again.

[Adam Cotton]

I heard a few days ago that the ICZN Commission had approved the application in:
Case 3767 – Papilio phoebus Fabricius, 1793 (currently Parnassius
phoebus; Insecta, Lepidoptera): proposed conservation of prevailing
usage of the specific name and that of Doritis ariadne Lederer, 1853
(currently Parnassius ariadne) by the designation of a neotype.
dx.doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v76.a007

I wasn't going to mention this until it is published in the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. Perhaps it was published yesterday (it's 1st Jan 2024 here), but there is nothing on the ICZN website yet. Where did you see this?

The taxon corybas reverts to a subspecies of Parnassius phoebus rather than the valid species name. Most authors continued to use the traditional classification of the species despite the action of Hanus & Theye (2011), so it is excellent news that the ICZN Commission has passed the application.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

Vladimir Lukhtanov sent me the link to the publication page of Opinion 2488 at
doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v80.a017
published on 29 December 2023:

Opinion 2488 (Case 3767) – Papilio phoebus Fabricius, 1793 (currently Parnassius phoebus; Insecta, Lepidoptera): usage conserved for the specific name and that of Doritis ariadne Lederer, 1853 (currently Parnassius ariadne) by the designation of a neotype

Abstract
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has used its plenary power to conserve the specific names Parnassius phoebus (Fabricius, 1793) and Parnassius ariadne (Lederer, 1853) in their current usage, and to set aside all previous fixations of type specimens for the nominal species Papilio phoebus Fabricius, 1793, by designating the specimen INS_LEP_0000940 as the neotype.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

Here's a simple explanation of the problem and how we solved it, which I posted on Insectnet:

Hanus & Theye (2010) decided the illustration of the type (specimen no longer in existence) was actually Parnassius ariadne and changed the names, with the next oldest name replacing P. phoebus. Then in 2011 they made it worse by designating a neotype for P. phoebus which was a specimen of P. ariadne. As a result P. ariadne became P. phoebus and P. phoebus became P. corybas.

We (Lukhtanov, Pelham, Cotton & Calhoun, 2019) applied to the ICZN Commission to overturn this action and designate a neotype in concordance with absolute prevailing usage, and eventually they agreed. The reason we didn't apply earlier was because we waited for a previous application (Balletto & Bonelli 2014. Case 3637 Papilio phoebus De Prunner, 1798 proposed conservation) to be voted on. That was rejected due to unsound methodology since phoebus De Prunner actually belongs to P. sacerdos.

In our application (Case 3767) we designated a neotype for Doritis ariadne Lederer, 1853 (currently Parnassius ariadne) and asked the ICZN Commission to overturn the 2011 neotype designation for P. phoebus, and proposed a specimen in St. Petersburg Museum from the type locality as a new neotype. The Commission approved our action, thus saving both species names for their traditional usage.

Adam.