Case 3407 Drosophila Fallén, 1832 (Insecta, Diptera): proposed conservation of usage Kim van der Linde Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306–1100, U.S.A. (e-mail: kim@kimvdlinde.com) Gerhard Bächli Zoological Museum, Winterthurerstraße 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland (e-mail: baechli@zm.uzh.ch) Masanori J. Toda Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, N19 W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060–0819, Japan Wen-Xia Zhang College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China Toru Katoh COE for Neo-Science of Natural History, Hokkaido University, N10 W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060–0810, Japan Yao-Guang Hu Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, N19 W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060–0819, Japan Greg S. Spicer Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, California 94132–1722, U.S.A. Abstract. The purpose of this application, under Article 70.2 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the widely used name Drosophila Fallén, 1832 (a genus of flies widely used in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology) by the designation of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 as the type species of Drosophila. Detailed phylogenetic studies show that the genus Drosophila as currently defined is paraphyletic. Splitting the genus requires that the subgenus Sophophora Sturtevant, 1939 must be ranked as a separate genus. The type species of Sophophora is by original designation Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830. Ranking Sophophora as a genus and changing the name of Drosophila melanogaster to Sophophora melanogaster would result in major nomenclatural instability due to the breadth and vast number of publications, using this combination. In addition, many refer to ‘Drosophila’ when ‘Drosophila melanogaster’ is actually meant; the two 238 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 64(4) December 2007