The tick species Haemaphysalis qinghaiensis Teng, 1980 was discovered in Qinghai Province and the species name is thus derived from a Chinese geographical name. “Qinghai” means blue lake—“qing” (blue) and “hai” (lake)—a large lake in northwestern China. Qinghai Province is situated east of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and north of Xizang Autonomous Region (Tibet). Since its description, H. qinghaiensis has been recorded from many other jurisdictions in China, including Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, and Ningxia and Xizang Autonomous Regions, and the species epithet qinghaiensis has been widely cited in both the Chinese tick literature (Teng & Jiang 1991; Yang et al. 2008; Chen et al. 2010; Chen et al. 2014) and western publications (Keirans & Robbins 1999; Horak et al. 2002; Robbins & Robbins 2003; Barker & Murrell 2004). However, a number of Western tick taxonomists seem to have been unaware that the name qinghaiensis is based on Romanization of a Chinese geographical name, and they therefore held that qinghaiensis was not in conformity with Latin grammar. As a result, they corrected qinghaiensis to “quinghaiensis” (Camicas et al. 1998), an emendation that was subsequently followed by others (Guglielmone et al. 2009, 2010, 2014).

The Latin spelling “Qinghai” was approved by the Chinese Government in 1958. In 1977, Romanization of Chinese geographical names was officially adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names under International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 7098.1977, revised in 1982 and again in 1991 to explain the principles of Romanization of modern Chinese, the official language of the People's Republic of China (Feng, 2013).

To date more than 160 organisms bear species names derived from Qinghai, including mites (e.g., Amblyseius qinghaiensis Wang & Xu, 1991 and Bryobia qinghaiensis Ma & Yuan, 1991), fleas (Amphipsylla qinghaiensis Ren & Ji, 1979 and Frontopsylla nakagawai qinghaiensis Liu, Cai & Pan, 1986), dipterans (Culicoides qinghaiensis Fei & Lee, 1984 and Hypoderma qinghaiensis Fan, 1982), nematodes (Trichostrongylus qinghaiensis Liang, Lu & Han, 1987 and Varestrongylus qinghaiensis Liu, 1984) and a rodent (Apodemus peninsulae qinghaiensis Feng, Zheng & Wu, 1983), as well as weeds (Artemisia dracunculus var. qinghaiensis Ling, 1988 and Asparagus qinghaiensis Wan, 1991) and bacteria (Sinococcus qinghaiensis Li, Zhang, Schumann, Tian, Zhang, Xu & Jiang, 2006). Even a genus name for a group of mites, Qinghailaelaps Gu & Yang, 1984, is derived from the Romanized geographical name for Qinghai Province.

According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) (1961) and ICZN 3rd Ed. (1985), Article 11 (b) (iii), “A name may be formed from a language that uses a non-Latin alphabet, or to represent a natural sound, or as an arbitrary combination of letters, if it is written in Latin letters and so constructed that it can be used as a word and deemed to be Latin (see Appendix C).” In Appendix C-15, Latinization of geographical and proper names, the writers read: “The letter q may be used to represent the Arabic qaf. The combination of qu should be used to represent the sound that is expressed in the English word quote and the French word quoi” And in Appendix D. IV-22: “A species-group name based on geographical names should be…preferably an adjective derived from the geographical name.” The same thinking appears in ICZN 4th Ed. (1999), where, under Recommendation 11A, “Use of vernacular names,” the writers find: “An unmodified vernacular word should not be used as a scientific name. Appropriate Latinization is the preferred means of formation of names from vernacular words.” Thus, the species name H. qinghaiensis is correct in its original spelling and should be preserved unaltered (ICZN 4^th ed., 1999, Article 32.2). Camicas et al. (1998) erred in correcting the original spelling and substituting the incorrect spelling “quinghaiensis,” which represents neither a natural Chinese sound nor a Chinese geographic name.

According to the ICZN 3^rd ed., 1985, Article 34(c), and 4^th ed., 1999, Article 33.3, “Any subsequent spelling of a name different from the correct original spelling, other than a mandatory change or an emendation, is an ‘incorrect subsequent spelling’; it is not an available name and does not enter into homonymy and cannot be used as a substitute name.”

Therefore, qinghaiensis is the correct spelling in all cases where zoological or botanical taxa bear this epithet, since it is derived from a geographical name and a natural sound. The citation for H. qinghaiensis should appear as follows: