1 Proposals to amend the Code TAXON 58 (2) • May 2009: –15 A previous series of proposals to change the name of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and make cognate adjustments (Hawksworth in Taxon 42: 156–162. 1993) was ruled as rejected at the Tokyo Congress in 1993, the main proposal having received only 24 votes for and 158 against in the mail ballot. The issue has not been considered since, either at the St. Louis Congress in 1999 or at the Vi- enna Congress in 2005. The evidence that Fungi are part of the same “superkingdom” as Animalia, which has been termed Opisthokonta (Adl & al. in J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 52: 399–451. 2005), is now overwhelming (e.g., James & al. in Nature 443: 818–822. 2006). In addition, since the series of International Mycological Congresses was initiated in 1971, the number of mycologists attending Nomenclature Section meetings at International Botanical Congresses has been minimal, rarely reaching double figures; very few my- cologists are personal members of IAPT and thus able to vote in the mail ballot. In contrast, nomenclatural debates at recent International Mycological Congresses have attracted 200–300 participants. Mycologists as a community wish to be seen as inde- pendent from botanists, as reflected in an informal vote at the International Mycological Congress in Cairns in 2006: although most participants did not complete voting slips, of those completed 36 votes were for either a separate mycological code or changing the name of the botanical Code, and only 4 voted for no change (Rossman in Mycol. Res. 110: 1254. 2006). In Cairns there were also forceful presentations from several leading mycologists on the need for the international mycological community, rather than the botanical community, to govern mycological nomen- PROPOSALS TO AMEND THE CODE Edited by John McNeill & Nicholas J. Turland clature. In April 2007, a majority of the 39 mycologists participating in an international workshop on “ Aspergillus systematics in the genomic era” in Utrecht “saw the need for a separate fungal nomenclatural code such as the code which the bacteriologists use” (Samson & al. in Stud. My- col. 59: 71–73. 2007). During August–September 2007, mycologists attending nomenclatural sessions or sympo- sia at the Mycological Society of America annual meeting (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), the XV Congress of European Mycologists (St. Petersburg, Russia), and the XVI Simposio Botánica Criptogámica de España (Léon, Spain) were asked to complete ballots on various issues related to the naming of fungi. A total of 95 questionnaires were completed from this geographically dispersed spectrum of mycologists. All did not vote on all issues, but of those voting, 73.3% (63) votes favoured a unified Code covering all groups of or- ganisms, but in the absence of a unified Code 82.7% (62) wished to see decisions on fungal nomenclature voted at International Mycological Congresses rather than at Inter- national Botanical Congresses (Hawksworth in Mycol. Res. 111: 1363–1364. 2007). We trust that the proposals below will enable the inter- national mycological community to assume full responsibil- ity for the nomenclature of fungi. If accepted, the propos- als made here could prevent an unfortunate and untimely schism. The proposals are divided into two groups, the first relating to the name of the Code and to clarification of its coverage, and the second to the decision-making on myco- logical matters under the Code. In any event, a Nomenclatural Session will be convened during the IX International Mycological Congress in Edin- (016–020) Proposals to amend the Code to make clear that it covers the nomenclature of fungi, and to modify its governance with respect to names of organisms treated as fungi David L. Hawksworth 1 , Pedro W. Crous 2 , José C. Dianese 3 , Marieka Gryzenhout 4 , Lorelei L. Norvell 5 & Keith A. Seifert 6 1 Honorary President, International Mycological Association: Departamento de Biología Vegetal II, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal, Madrid 28040, Spain; Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K. d.hawksworth@nhm.ac.uk (author for correspondence) 2 President, International Mycological Association: CBS Fungal Diversity Centre, PO Box 85167, 3508 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands 3 Past-President, Associação Latino-Americana de Micologia: Departamento de Fitopatologia, Universsidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília DF, Brasil 4 President, African Mycological Association: Forestry & Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa 5 Editor-in-Chief, Mycotaxon and Secretary, Nomenclature Committee for Fungi: Pacific Northwest Mycology Service, 6720 NW Skyline Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97229-1309, U.S.A. 6 Chair, International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi: Biodiversity (Mycology and Botany), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6, Canada