text from an article in the March 2001 issue of Castanea (Vol. 66 no. 1), by James R. Allison and Timothy E. Stevens

FOOTNOTE

4. To conserve space in referring to collections, usually we cite only a fraction of our multiple collections of a given taxon, and abbreviate our names to the first letter of our surnames, except for formal designation of types or where ambiguity might result.