Kraussia Dana, 1852 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura), the senior homonym of Kraussia Davidson, 1852 (Brachiopoda: Terebratulida: Terebratellidina): confirmation and authorship of the replacement name Kraussina Suess, 1859

Abstract

Kraussia was made available by Dana (1852a) and Davidson (1852) as a brachyuran and brachiopod genus, respectively. Suess (1859) provided a replacement name Kraussina, for Davidson’s (1852) taxon but did not provide any evidence why Dana’s (1852) name was the senior homonym. Evidence is presented here to support the action of Suess (1859), although there is confusion concerning the oldest description of Kraussia by Dana. For example, Stebbing (1918: 53) and Ng (1993: 137) cite Dana (1852c: 297) as the first available description of Kraussia. Dana (1852c: 297) wrote “G. 2. Kraussia, Dana.–Carapax […]” and by inserting his name after Kraussia, it seems that Dana (1852c) was indicating that he had previously described the genus. Indeed, Dana (1852a) is an earlier description of the genus, in which Platyonichus rugulosa Krauss, 1843, was referred to this taxon. Dana (1852a: footnote, 120) stated: “Ad species complectendum Xantho integrum DeHaanii […] et Platyonychum rugulosum Kraussii […], Thiæ affinies et Xantho remotas, genus ‘Kraussia’ institutum est”. Kraussia was also used by Dana (1852b: 86) when he wrote “Genus Kraussia, Dana. Kraussia rugulosa, Platyonychus rugulosus Krauss (Südaf. Crust. p. 26, tab. 1, f. 5) ad insulas Hawaienses lecta.”. Again he referred to “Kraussia Dana”, suggesting the genus was already available (i.e., as in Dana 1852a: 120). Kraussia should thus be credited to Dana (1852a).