Abstract
More than one hundred nomina with typus as the specific epithet were introduced between 1810 and 1999. These nomina are discussed in respect to the different notions of typicality—morphological, taxonomic and nomenclatural—that may have motivated the use of this epithet by different authors in different times and the significance of these epithets in respect to the changing practice and regulation of zoological nomenclature since the time of the Strickland Report (1842). Traditions specific to particular higher taxa and shared usage of the typus epithet by zoologists in close contact with each other are suggested. Nomina with typicus (-a, -um) as the specific epithet are also briefly discussed.