Name: "Firmicutes" corrig. Gibbons and Murray 1978 (Approved Lists 1980)

Category: Division

Proposed as: new division

Etymology: Fir.mi.cu’tes. L. masc. adj. firmus, strong, stout, durable; L. fem. n. cutis, skin; N.L. fem. pl. n. Firmicutes, division with thick and strong skin, to indicate gram-positive type of cell wall

Type order: Bacillales Prévot 1953 (Approved Lists 1980)

Original publication: Gibbons NE, Murray RGE. Proposals Concerning the Higher Taxa of Bacteria. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 1978; 28:1-6.

IJSEM list: Skerman VBD, McGowan V, Sneath PHA. Approved lists of bacterial names. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1980; 30:225-420.

Nomenclatural status: not validly published

Taxonomic status: synonym (and no standing)

Preferred name: "Posibacteria" Cavalier-Smith 2002

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    "Posibacteria" Cavalier-Smith 2002	homotypic synonym, not validly published
    "Firmacutes" Gibbons and Murray 1978 (Approved Lists 1980)	other spelling of name, inaccurate spelling

• Notes:
  • Murray (1984) assigned this division to the kingdom "Procaryotae" Murray 1968. Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, first edition, vol. 1, The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.
  • Murray (1984) assigned the class Firmibacteria Murray 1988 to this division. Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, first edition, vol. 1, The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.
  • Murray (1984) assigned the class "Thallobacteria" Murray 1984 to this division. Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, first edition, vol. 1, The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.
  • This taxon name is occasionally misprinted in some sources as: "Fermicutes"; "Fimicutes"; "Fimzicutes"; "Finnicutes"; "Firmcutes"; "Firmucutes"; "Frimicutes". — This taxon name is occasionally used in singular form as: "Firmicute".
  • This taxon was discussed in a meeting of a Taxonomic Subcommittee of the ICSP. Publication: Anonymous NN. International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Mollicutes: Minutes of the Interim Meetings, 1 and 2 August, 1992, Ames, Iowa. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 1993; 43:394-397.
  • This taxon was discussed in a meeting of a Taxonomic Subcommittee of the ICSP. Publication: Tully J. International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology: Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Mollicutes. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 1993; 43:394-397.
  • The taxonomic category of this name is not currently in use in the LPSN hierarchy. For this reason, this name does not have a parent taxon and does not have child taxa.
  • The nomenclature of Firmicutes corrig. (= Firmacutes Gibbons and Murray 1978) is unusual because the name was included in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names (Skerman et al. 1980) although the given taxonomic category, division, had already been removed from the revision of the ICNB (now ICNP) in effect at that time. Thus, the inclusion of that name in the Approved Lists appears to be a mistake. If one regarded the name as validly published in accordance with Rule 24a of the ICNP, it would be illegitimate because of the deviating category. However, according to General Consideration 7 one of the central tasks of nomenclature is to define the terms used to denote the taxonomic categories and their relative ranks. For this reason, a validly published name with a category not included in the ICNB/ICNP is an extreme case. Thus, the name Firmicutes corrig. could also be treated as not being validly published. Notably, when the phylum category was introduced into the ICNP in 2021, a clause that equalized phylum and division was not included. For this reason, Firmicutes corrig. remains to be affected by being proposed with the wrong category. LPSN regards division and phylum as categories of the same rank, but, for the purpose of assessing the status of a taxon name, the ICNP itself would need to define division and phylum as being synonymous. Notably, if Firmicutes corrig. was validly published at the rank of phylum it would still be illegitimate because the formation of the name contravenes Rule 8. The name Firmicutes corrig. is not derived from the stem of the name of the type genus, but this is enforced by Rule 8 without the possibility to make an exception. Publication: Lapage SP, Sneath PHA, Clark WA, Lessel EF, Seeliger HPR. Proposed Revision of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 1973; 23:83-108.
  • The original spelling, Firmacutes (sic), has been corrected by Murray 1984, who still gave division as the taxonomic category instead of phylum. Publication: Murray RGE. The higher taxa, or, a place for everything..? In: Krieg NR, Holt JG (eds), Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, first edition, vol. 1, The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1984, p. 31-34.

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Record number: 777