Essay reviews the implications of monotypic genera in classification systems, emphasizing their necessity and challenges.
Monotypic genera are undesirable from a cladistic perspective because they are not clades and therefore cannot be diagnosed by synapomorphies. They are undesirable from a nomenclatural perspective because their names obscure the relationship of the contained species to other species, thereby negating the semantic value of the generic name. This essay reviews situations in which monotypic genera are required by the structure of a cladogram, and situations in which they have apparently been erected on phenetic or evolutionary taxonomic considerations. A case study from Hesperiidae (skipper butterflies) is presented.
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Andrew V. Z. Brower (2026) studied this question.
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