The protologue, from Greek words for “first” and “discourse”, is everything associated with a name at its valid publication: description, diagnosis, illustrations, references, synonymy, geographical data, specimens cited and discussion (Madrid Code, Art. 6 footnote). It is where an author designates the holotype (Art. 9.1).
Fungi have an extra rule. A new fungal name published on or after 1 January 2013 must, in its protologue, cite an identifier issued by a recognized repository (Madrid Code, Art. F.5.2). MycoBank, Index Fungorum and Fungal Names are the recognized repositories.
Reading a protologue is how researchers check what a name originally meant. The 1978 paper naming Psilocybe tampanensis is a typical one: a formal description, a note on material grown in culture, and a comparison with two related species (Guzmán and Pollock, 1978). A protologue fixes the name’s starting point. It does not record what later happened to cultures or to labels carrying the name.
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