The birth and fate of new generic names

No student of natural history can have escaped the proliferation of new names in the last few decades, certainly evident in mycology. Of course, the most obvious need for a new name comes about when an organism is discovered whose existence was hitherto unknown, i.e. a species, genus, or larger group new to science. However, for the layman the sudden profusion of new names for seemingly old organisms or groups of organisms is causing some confusion and consternation, particularly when several names replace a former single name. In this discussion we shall use genera as an example to show how new names (new genera) come about and what happens to them after introduction.