Talk:Kapuasia

brackets?

Rather curious as to why the Tan & Hasan, 2024 ref does not have brackets, but the (Roberts, 1989) does — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 11:30, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

@GhostInTheMachine:, brackets around taxonomic authors indicate that a species was originally described in a different genus than the one in which it is currently placed. Note that the type species given in the taxobox is Nemacheilus maculiceps Roberts, 1989 (without brackets, because it was originally placed in Nemacheilus before being moved to Kapuasia). It is a convention that you need to know quite a bit about taxonomy to be aware of, and consequently, incorrect presence/absence of brackets is one of the most common, albeit trivial, errors in Wikipedia articles about taxa. I correct brackets if I notice there is an obvious problem with them (a species described in 1989 must have brackets if it is included in a genus not described until 2024), or a likely problem (it is unlikely that a species described in 2024 would have been transferred to a different genus in the last two years). And if I see a genus described in say, 1800, where every species authority is bracketed, I am immediately suspicious that a Wikipedia editor has tried to standardize brackets without understanding their meaning.

I don't generally check to make sure that brackets are correct if I don't immediately notice an issue with the dates that makes me suspicious, but there are definitely many cases on Wikipedia where the brackets are wrong, without an obvious issue with the dates for the genus/species. Plantdrew (talk) 03:51, 12 August 2026 (UTC)