On the unnecessary renaming of homonyms in Pyramidellidae

Two recent articles, by Pimenta and Absalao (1998) and Corgan and Aartsen ( 1998), were published for the sole purpose of replacing names of homonyms i n the Pyramidellidae. Both articles ignored provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Corgan and Aartsen failed to demonstrate that the secondary homonyms that they replaced were congeneric with their s upposed senior homonyms. Both sets of authors failed to demonstrate that th e names they replaced referred to valid species. Among the replacement name s by Pimenta and Absalao, Turbonilla nesiotes is a nomen dubium and Turboni lla sinensis is preoccupied by Clessin, 1900; among those by Corgan and Aar sten, Turbonilla sulcatella is a nomen dubium and Turbonilla abnormalis is unnecessary as secondary homonymy did not exist between Chemnitzia ambigua Saurin, 1962, a Turbonilla, and Turbonilla ambigua Deshayes, 1861, a Syrnol a. Renaming of homonyms outside the context of systematic revisions leads t o needless proliferation of names and should be avoided.