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Concept
Holotype
Summary
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several examples, but explicitly designated as the holotype. Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), a holotype is one of several kinds of name-bearing types. In the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and ICZN, the definitions of types are similar in intent but not identical in terminology or underlying concept.
For example, the holotype for the butterfly Plebejus idas longinus is a preserved specimen of that subspecies, held by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. In botany, an isotype is a duplicate of the holotype, where holotype and isotypes are often pieces from the same individual plant or samples from the same gathering.
A holotype is not necessarily "typical" of that taxon, although ideally it is. Sometimes just a fragment of an organism is the holotype, particularly in the case of a fossil. For example, the holotype of Pelorosaurus humerocristatus (Duriatitan), a large herbivorous dinosaur from the early Jurassic period, is a fossil leg bone stored at the Natural History Museum in London. Even if a better specimen is subsequently found, the holotype is not superseded.
Under the ICN, an additional and clarifying type could be designated an epitype under article 9.8, where the original material is demonstrably ambiguous or insufficient.
A conserved type (ICN article 14.3) is sometimes used to correct a problem with a name which has been misapplied; this specimen replaces the original holotype.
In the absence of a holotype, another type may be selected, out of a range of different kinds of type, depending on the case, a lectotype or a neotype.
For example, in both the ICN and the ICZN a neotype is a type that was later appointed in the absence of the original holotype.
Official source
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