'Types' are those specimens that are used ('designated' as holotype and paratypes) by an author for the description of a new taxon, or when a single specimen (lectotype) is selected by a subsequent author from a series (of syntypes) used by the original author to describe a taxon (the remainder are designated paralectotypes). In special circumstances if a specimen is needed to fix the identity of a species, as a basis for distinguishing a species (e.g. when types are lost), a neotype may be designated by a subsequent author to define the identity of a species only known from the literature. An allotype is sometimes designated as the opposite sex to the holotype and it has the same status as a paratype.

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