Add Infratribes?

Curators
1

I was updating some Orthoptera (grasshopper/crickets) taxonomy and while trying to update the subtribes in a family of crickets, I came across this “genus groups”. Now in the past, we’ve talked about “species groups” which after much debate falls under the term “complex” in iNat but we don’t have a rank between subtribe and genus.

I’ve been trying to find some literature mentioning ranks between subtribe and genus but I haven’t found much but the way Orthoptera Species Files (OSF) treats these “groups”, I’m assuming there’s some valid zoological rank that they improperly labelled, my guess is infratribe. Why I think that is because these genus groups are named after the type genus but the suffix is “ae”. Example:

TYPE GENUS -----------> GENUS GROUP
Miogryllus -----------------> Miogryllae

So it seems like, contrary to species groups where they use an informal name (ex. sanguinipes group) named after the type species, OSF acts like there’s a legit rank between the aforementioned ranks. I think the proper term is infratribe but I’m not sure. Thoughts before I make a feature request?

2

I guess infratribe would be the right name for it, but I’ve never heard it used. As far as I know there’s no officially recognized suffix for it, or for “genus group” (which I haven’t heard of, except very informally). Even subtribes are rare (mostly used in beetles) and bordering on oversplitting IMO, especially when classification at that level tends to be unstable.

3

The Code for Zoological Nomenclature does not treat categories between subtribe and genus, so there is no “right” name from this point of view. But why another formal level?