Talk:Helopeltis

Latest comment: 4 months ago by Roy Bateman in topic Confusion Between Genus and Subgenus

Importance edit

This is a significant pest genus, so I think of at least medium importance. Roy Bateman (talk) 04:14, 22 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Confusion Between Genus and Subgenus edit

The intro says "Now in a different subgenus, a number of similar Afropeltis species are pests in Africa." Since all subgenera of Helopeltis are still part of Helopeltis, it doesn't make sense to say this. Further down the page, there's a section on Afropeltis, with species written in the form Afropeltis xyz. Anything written Afropeltis xyz has to be in the genus Afropeltis, which would be separate from Helopeltis. If Afropeltis were a subgenus, then all the species would be written as Helopeltis (Afropeltis) xyz, or just Helopeltis xyz.

Either Afropeltis is a subgenus, like the intro says- in which case all the species names starting with "Afropeltis" are wrong, or it's a separate genus, in which case the intro is wrong. Beyond that, if Afropeltis is a separate genus, you would think Afropeltis would be in a different article, since this is an article about the genus Helopeltis. At the very least, there should be an explanation about the fact that they're separate genera, and about why they're treated in the same article. Chuck Entz (talk) 01:13, 30 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

You make a good point Chuck, but there appears to be disagreement among scientists - working on it! Roy Bateman (talk) 05:25, 20 December 2023 (UTC)Reply