Should names reflect the evolution of bacterial species?

Systematics is the process of characterizing and arranging bacterial diversity in an orderlymanner, recognizing groups of similar organisms in a hierarchical scheme whose basic entity isthe species. To allow the exchange of scientific knowledge, taxa have to be named. Taxa are notstatic entities since they are subject to evolution, the direction of which can be inferred by usinga wide range of techniques targeting specific traits. However, it is not clear how this dynamismshould be reflected in taxonomic nomenclature. In the present report, several considerations arepresented that deal with the relationship between the evolution of taxa and their nomenclature;an example is given which concerns the nomenclature of the species Lactobacillus delbrueckii.