MIKTONISCUS SPINOSUS (SAY, 1818) NOV. COMB. FOR MIKTONISCUS HALOPHILUS BLAKE, 1931, AND PHILOSCIA SPINOSA SAY, 1818, FROM EASTERN UNITED STATES (ISOPODA, ONISCIDEA, TRICHONISCIDAE)

Abstract

Thomas Say in 1818 published the description of a species which he called from near Savannah, Georgia, then a small town in an unde veloped region near the sea. The species, as described by Say, definitely is not in nor in Philosciidae, although at the time of Say, was a very broadly defined genus. The species has not been encountered again and the name only has been included in lists of species of oniscideans from the Americas (Richardson, 1905: 608; Van Name, 1936: 167; Jass & Klausmeier, 2000: 786). According to Say the specimens were deposited in the Cabinet of the (i.e., The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia) but they no longer are there. Also, Say deposited a representative set of species of crustaceans which he de scribed from the United States in the British Museum (Natural History) (now The Natural History Museum, London), but specimens labeled Philoscia spinosa are not there today (Joan Ellis, pers. comm.). When Say deposited the specimens, onis cideans were preserved like insects by being pinned and dried and, over the years, most probably they, if indeed they were present, disintegrated and no longer are there. After reading the description of Say's P. spinosa, and realizing that his speci mens were collected not far from the sea, the similarity of his species to that of Miktoniscus halophilus Blake (1931a: 345, fig. li-j, fig. 2a-i; 1931b) was recog nized (= Trichoniscus halophilus Blake, 1930, a nomen nudum). Miktoniscus halophilus first was recorded in coastal regions (salt marshes) of Massachusetts. It was recorded as Trichoniscus {Miktoniscus) halophilus by Van Name (1936: 88). Its range extends south into North Carolina (Schultz, 1982) and further into coastal Georgia (Schultz, 1975, 1977) south of Savannah. Although M. halophilus