Abstract
The spelling of organism names seems to be a trivial matter. A brief glance at the scientific literature, however, shows that it is far from that. In some cases, delving into these seemingly minor or even unimportant issues of spelling can turn up historical information germane to our science. Apart from simple misspellings and printing errors, differing ideas about the formation of names and the late onset of regulations (ICZN, ICBN) covering the naming and use of names are sources for different spellings. It was not until 1905 that a first internationally accepted version of what we now know as “the Code” was published under the name “Règles internationales de la Nomenclature Zoologique adoptées par les Congrès Internationaux de Zoologie”. The Code kept being emended after this first attempt to provide a unified set of rules for the naming and treatment of names and today, for animals, the 4th edition of the Code is valid (ICZN 1999).