‘Localimania’ revisited: guidelines for the formation of specific epithets for names of prokaryotes based on names of institutions or their acronyms. A proposal for emendation of Appendix 9 to the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes

We here present a survey of the increasing use of the -ensis (-ense) ending for the formation of specific epithets that do not refer to geographical locations but to names of research institutes or their acronyms. To our opinion the use of the -ensis (-ense) ending must be discouraged for such purposes, the formation of nouns in the genitive case being preferred for the formation of such arbitrary epithets. Emendation of Appendix 9 - Orthography to the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes is proposed with guidelines for the formation of such names.