In taxonomy: taxonomic names for biological species are sometimes widely misunderstood or misinterpreted. Such species may later be referred to under the wrong name, often that of a sister species. This is quite different from synonymy where the same biological species has two or more names. However misidentifications are often listed in synonymies (lists of synonyms) and sometimes there is confusion between the two.
For example in Ulidiidae: Homalocephala albitarsis Zetterstedt, 1838 = bipunctata (Loew, 1854) Homalocephala biumbrata (Wahlberg, 1838) = albitarsis Zetterstedt, 1838: misident. sensu auct.
In the first case two different names have been appled to the same species. These are synonyms.
In the second case unspecified authors have misidentified what is really biumbrata as albitarsis.
In general: Misidentification can also mean an error of identification which does not enter the literature.
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