• Holotypes

A single specimen, chosen by the author to be the physical embodiment of the concept of his species. Once chosen, this specimen takes precedence over any abstract concept of the species, whether the author’s name or anyone else’s. Colonial animals, such as corals, complicated the issue, but generally there is one holotype.

• Paratypes

All the remaining specimens in the sample from which a holotype was chosen. There may be many of these, and they are often deposited in several museums for safety and availability for consultation. They will have been collected at the same place at the same time. New species based on one specimen (the holotype) will have no paratypes.

• Allotypes

A special paratype, in that it is a single specimen chosen from the paratypes, that is of the opposite sex to the holotypes. Allotypes have no more status than other paratypes, but it is sometimes useful to designate such specimens.

• Syntypes

Authors have not always chosen holotypes, and have distributed ‘types’ to museums and friends; members of such a type series with no holotype are termed ‘syntypes.’ They are not encouraged in modern taxonomy, but museums may contained specimens labeled as such, or simply as ‘type.’

• Cotype

An outmoded and imprecise term for either paratype or syntype.

• Lectotype

A holotype subsequently chosen from a syntypic series. The remaining syntypes are paralectotypes.

• Neotype

A new holotype, usually chosen from a paratype series from which the original type has been lost or destroyed.

• Topotype

A specimen collected from the same site as the original types. One of a range of so-called types which have no taxonomic status.

Definitions taken from Hounsome, M.V. 1984. Research: natural science collections. Pp. 150-155 in Manual of Curatorship (John M.A. Thompson, ed.). Museums Association 1984, Great Britian, 553 pp.