Farming, Fisheries & Horticulture

The names of the economically important edible octopus, Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797, and squid, Loligo vulgaris Lamarck, 1795, were threatened by long disused senior synonyms. O. vulgaris, the common octopus, is a coastal species with a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate and tropical seas. It is a commercially important species in northeast African, Atlantic European, Mediterranean and Japanese waters, accounting for a large percentage of octopus fisheries, with around 100,000 metric tonnes landed annually according to United Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation's statistics. The common squid, L. vulgaris, found in temperate waters from the North Sea and around the British Isles to the western African coast, and throughout the Mediterranean Sea, along with L. forbesi is the main target of squid fisheries on the Atlantic European coasts. The Commission conserved the specific names of these two important species and placed them on the Official Lists. [1997]

A recent application to the Commission asks that the generic name Pemphigus Hartig, 1839, for a group of economically important aphids be conserved by suppression of the older name, Rhizobius. It is argued that a return to use of the generic name Rhizobius instead of Pemphigus would cause unnecessary confusion since Pemphigus is regularly used in combination with 66 specific names. Several of these are pest species well known to farmers, agronomists and forestry experts: P. bursarius (lettuce), P. populitransversus (poplar), P. betae/P. populivenae (sugarbeet), P. passeki (caraway) and P. phenax (carrots). [2004]