Notes on the nomenclature of spinorays (Chondrichthyes, Batomorphii, Apolithabatiformes)

This book inventories all available (and some unavailable) names in the family, genus, and species groups of extant members of orders Actiniaria and Corallimorpharia [cnidarian subclass Hexacorallia (Zoantharia) of class Anthozoa], providing a benchmark of names, their status, and taxon membership. I have attempted to make the compilation complete as of 2010; some names created after 2010 are included. The book is derived from a database I compiled that was available through a website. Most of the book is from the literature that defines taxa and documents their geographic distribution-primarily publications on nomenclature, taxonomy, and biogeography, but also some on ecology, pharmacology, reproductive biology, physiology, etc. of anemones (the common name for these groups); the reference section comprises 845 entries. As for previous anemone catalogs, this contains taxonomic as well as nomenclatural information, the former based on subjective opinion of working biologists, the latter objectively verifiable and unchanging (except by action of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature). Each family-group name, genus-group name, and original combination for species-group names has an entry. The entry contains the bibliographic reference to the publication in which each name was made available. This book contains for Corallimorpharia seven family names (four considered valid [57%]), 20 generic names (10 considered valid [50%] and one unavailable), and 65 species names (46 considered valid [70%]). It contains for Actiniaria 86 family names (50 considered valid [58%] and three unavailable), 447 generic names (264 considered valid [59%] and two unavailable), and 1427 species names (1101 considered valid [77%] and nine unavailable). Type specimens are inventoried from more than 50 natural history museums in Africa, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and North America, including those with the largest collections of anemones; the geographic sources of specimens that were the bases of new names are identified. I resolve some nomenclatural issues, acting as First Reviser. A few taxonomic opinions are published for the first time. I have been unable to resolve a small number of problematic names having both nomenclatural and taxonomic problems. Molecular phylogenetic analyses are changing assignment of genera to families and species to genera. Systematics may change, but the basics of nomenclature remain unchanged in face of such alterations. All actions are in accord with the principles of nomenclature enunciated in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. These include the type concept, the Principle of Coordination, and the Principle of Priority. Nomenclatural acts include the creation of new replacement names; seven actiniarian generic names and one species name that are junior homonyms but have been treated as valid are replaced and an eighth new genus name is created. I designate type species for two genera. Except for published misspellings, names are rendered correctly according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature; I have altered spelling of some species names to conform to orthographic regulations. I place several species that had been assigned to genera now considered junior synonyms in the genus to which the type species was moved; experts on these anemones should determine whether those generic placements, which follow the nomenclatural rules, are taxonomically appropriate. This inventory can be a useful starting point in assembling the literature and trying to understand the rationale for the creation and use of names for the taxonomic matters yet to be resolved. Some nomenclatural conundra will not be resolved until taxonomic uncertainties are. A taxonomist familiar with the animals needs to ascertain whether the published synonymies are justified. If so, the senior synonym should be used, which, in many instances, will involve determining the proper generic assignment of the species and the correct rendering of the name; if changing the name would be disruptive, retaining the junior name would require an appeal to the Commission (Code Article 23.11).

The pennatulacean genus Balticina has had a long and confusing taxonomic history, with serious nomenclatural problems that remain unresolved. Owing to disagreements about authorships and dates of publication, the names Pavonaria, Norticina and Halipteris have all been used as valid in place of Balticina, or else been regarded as its junior synonyms, even simultaneously. In this paper, after an extensive literature review, we determine the authorships and dates for all the taxa involved in accordance with the provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and establish Balticina Gray, 1870 (=Halipteris) and Balticinidae Balss, 1910 (=Halipteridae) as the valid genus and family names, respectively, for this group of sea pens. We also propose the replacement name Rakollikeria for the preoccupied genus name Pavonaria Kölliker, 1870 (Balticinidae) (nec Schweigger, 1819 - Funiculinidae).

The modern history of collection and study of corals in the Permian strata of Timor began in 1911,with a German expedition (J.Wanner, leader) and a Dutch expedition (H. Molengraaff, leader) to collect Permian and Triassic fossils in the colony of Netherlands Timor, and with a survey by the Swiss geologist F. Weber the same year in Portuguese Timor, the eastern portion of the island. Later expeditions led by Jonker (1916) and Brouwer (1937), both of the Netherlands, greatly increased already huge collections of fossils and additionally, understanding of the island's geology. Monographic studies of these coral collections by Gerth (1921), Koker (1924), Schindewolf (1942), Hehenwarter (1951) and Schouppé & Stacul (1955, 1959) have much enhanced the systematic value of these fossil corals, both Rugosa and Tabulata. Locality information and maps containing collecting localities are somewhat scattered (Wanner 1931, Burck 1923, Marez Oyens 1940, Van Bemmelen 1949), but are summarized here. A list of all valid species names(109 Rugosa, 25 Tabulata) is appended to this paper, with type localities and horizon. Serious problems of nomenclature are avoided in this paper by accepting genus names used in Hill (1981), modified by later systematic studies, such as that of Fedorowski (1986), but some unknown number of names in the list of species are to be synonymized, especially since 31 of them are based on a single specimen (e.g. Niermann 1975). The biostratigraphy of these faunas is uncertain, in great part due to the greatest number of corals having been collected from a tectonic mélange sequence in the Baun to Basleo structural region, and additionally because of the purchase of huge numbers of fossils from the indigenous people of Timor, with accompanying uncertainties regarding locality and horizon data. The coral fauna of Permian age from Timor needs serious restudy to insure its stratigraphic and palaeontologic value, but future study will require new field collection of specimens from the relatively complete stratigraphic sequences in the northern ‘Fatu’ belt of outcrops. The huge numbers of individuals of some coral species provide great opportunities for understanding population structure in these faunas.

This paper deals with the correct citation of names of authors of Tribes formed from genus names currently assigned to the Rhodomelaceae. Unfortunately, nomenclatural problems and incorrect author citations have occurred for various Tribe names currently placed in the Rhodomelaceae. According to Díaz-Tapia & al. (2017: 920), the Rhodomelaceae is the largest family of red algae with over 1000 currently recognized species and over 140 currently recognized genera. A nomenclatural overview dealing with the scientific naming of taxa, the citation of authors of scientific names and a nomenclatural analysis of the taxonomic ranks utilized by some previous authors, is followed by a detailed account of the correct Tribe names, author citations and associated information. A glossary of nomenclatural terms and phrases used in this account is also included.

Nomenclatural problems concerning the generic and familial names for the New Zealand and American ribbed frogs

In the scientific literature, the availability, authorship, date and onomatophore of the four generic nomina of lizards "Platydactyles", "Hemidactyles", "Thecadactyles" and "Ptyodactyles" published by Cuvier (1816) and of the genus nomen of toads "Otilophes" published by Cuvier (1829) as French scientific nomina in the plural, and of their latinised forms, are credited to various authors. After a careful analysis, these nomina are here attributed respectively to Goldfuss (1820) for Platydactylus, Hemidactylus, Thecadactylus and Ptyodactylus, to Wagler (1830) for Otilophus and to Tschudi (1838) for Osilophus. Solutions are proposed to various other nomenclatural problems related to these and related nomina. Attention is drawn again to the fact that the Code’s Rules concerning specific epithets and generic substantives being ‘unmodified vernacular words’, as well as those distinguishing ‘unjustified emendations’ from ‘incorrect subsequent spellings’ are deficient. In order to solve all these nomenclatural cases, we had to resort to 20 Articles of the Code (3.2, 11.2, 11.3, 11.6, 11.7, 11.8, 21.2, 21.3, 23.9, 24.2, 30.2, 32.5, 33.2, 33.3, 35.4, 40.2, 50.1, 57.3, 67.8 and 68.3) and to 59 technical nomenclatural terms. This highlights the fact that nomenclatural problems concerning old nomina cannot be properly dealt with in a hurry and without a good, but also critical, knowledge of the Code, and that the use of a more detailed terminology than that of the Code facilitates such a work.

(217) Proposal to amend Article 38.4 to allow binding decisions on whether a name was accepted by its author(s) in the original publication

Leptocoris arabicus new species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Rhopalidae: Serinethinae) is described based on 55 specimens of both sexes collected in various localities of southern Oman and southeastern Yemen; a hypothesis is proposed as to its host plant. The new species is close to Leptocoris amictus Germar, 1838 and to Leptocoris ruber Göllner-Scheiding, 1980, new status, due to the presence of a produced horned process along the posterior ventral margin of the genital capsule. It is distinguished from both by differences in colour pattern and morphology. An informal L. amictus species-subgroup is proposed to accommodate these three species within the Leptocoris hexophthalmus species-group sensu Göllner-Scheiding (1980). The following new faunistic records are also provided: L. amictus from Ethiopia, Mozambique and Zambia; L. ruber from Central African Republic. The occurrence of L. chevreuxi (Noualhier, 1893) in Oman is confirmed. The list of all available species-group names assigned to Leptocoris Hahn, 1833 (gender masculine) and their synonyms is compiled and the gender agreement is corrected in the species names when appropriate. The nomenclatural problem concerning Leptocoris living on Marshall Islands discovered by Kerzhner (2003) is discussed and the following corrections are provided: Leptocoris rufus rufus Hahn, 1833, new status = Leptocoris lariversi Usinger, 1952, new synonymy, and Leptocoris rufus isolatus (Distant, 1914) new status.

Isolates of Colletotrichum associated with fruit rots in New Zealand were used to test the applicability of morphological, cultural, and rDNA sequence data to clarify relationships within this genus. Morphological and cultural features were used to recognize 16 distinct groups among the New Zealand fruit-rotting isolates. These included the currently accepted species C. coccodes, C. musae, C. orbiculare, and Glomerella miyabeana as well as 3 C. acutatum like groups and 9 C. gloeosporioides-like groups. Analysis of rDNA sequences from the D2 region allowed the isolates to be separated into 4 broad groups (the relationships of C. coccodes remaining unresolved), the various morphological/cultural groups clustering as subgroups among the rDNA sequence groups. The same 4 groups were recognized when rDNA sequences from the New Zealand isolates were compared with those from Colletotrichum isolates from other hosts and other countries. Taxonomic treatment of the molecular and morphological/cultural data is discussed. A trinomial group-species concept may provide the best approach to subgeneric classification within Colletotrichum. The species name (based on rDNA sequence similarity and supporting morphological and cultural features) indicates the broad group within Colletotrichum to which the isolate belongs; the subspecific name provides additional information on host specialisation, morphological variation, etc. However, before the utility of this concept can be properly assessed, the evolutionary and genetic relationships between the various morphological and sequence-defined groups need to be better understood. If such a scheme is shown to be practical in a biological sense then a number of taxonomic and nomenclatural problems will need to be resolved before it could be adopted.

Isolates of Colletotrichum associated with fruit rots in New Zealand were used to test the applicability of morphological, cultural, and rDNA sequence data to clarify relationships within this genus. Morphological and cultural features were used to recognize 16 distinct groups among the New Zealand fruit-rotting isolates. These included the currently accepted species C. coccodes, C. musae, C. orbiculare, and Glomerella miyabeana as well as 3 C. acutatum like groups and 9 C. gloeosporioides-like groups. Analysis of rDNA sequences from the D2 region allowed the isolates to be separated into 4 broad groups (the relationships of C. coccodes remaining unresolved), the various morphological/cultural groups clustering as subgroups among the rDNA sequence groups. The same 4 groups were recognized when rDNA sequences from the New Zealand isolates were compared with those from Colletotrichum isolates from other hosts and other countries. Taxonomic treatment of the molecular and morphological/cultural data is discussed. A trinomial group-species concept may provide the best approach to subgeneric classification within Colletotrichum. The species name (based on rDNA sequence similarity and supporting morphological and cultural features) indicates the broad group within Colletotrichum to which the isolate belongs; the subspecific name provides additional information on host specialisation, morphological variation, etc. However, before the utility of this concept can be properly assessed, the evolutionary and genetic relationships between the various morphological and sequence-defined groups need to be better understood. If such a scheme is shown to be practical in a biological sense then a number of taxonomic and nomenclatural problems will need to be resolved before it could be adopted.

The personal history of forgotten Japanese arachnologist, Kyukichi Kishida (1888–1968) is described for the first time based on information collected from the literature and through interviews with the late Prof. Seikichi Kishida (1931–2002), the fourth son of K. Kishida. A complete list of Kishida's works on spiders is provided. Much confusion resulted from the species and higher taxa descriptions or species designations made by Kishida. In many cases he first proposed a new name for an undescribed species found but left its description to his followers. Therefore, some species were really described by another person, while many nomina nuda were produced. A revision of each taxon with systematical and nomenclatural problems will be given in forthcoming parts of this serial (in preparation).

JN THE past few years there has arisen a controversy over the proper generic name for that group of living oysters which includes such commercially important species as the American (or Virginia) and the Japanese (now Pacific) oyster. This controversy is the result of Lamarck's somewhat loose allocation of fossil and recent species to his Gryphaea, and the assumption by most of those involved in the present dispute that the living estuarine oysters cannot be included in the same as the Jurassic and Cretaceous Gryphaeas. Lamarck apparently saw no real generic difference between the ramshorn Gryphaeas and the modern species, as he included examples of both in his lists of species allocated to Gryphaea. As a generic name for the Portuguese and related oysters, is a sentimental favorite among European oyster biologists (Vilela, 1951; Korringa, 1952); and Ranson, the leading oyster taxonomist, has pleaded for an exercise of the plenary powers of the International Commission to validate Lamarck's 1819 usage of Gryphaea, in which angulata is clearly the type, as opposed to the 1801 usage for which the Cretaceous arcuata has been subsequently designated as the genotype (see Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 2: 239-240, 4 May 1951). This movement to deny the Cretaceous species the right to the name would, if successful, oblige paleontologists to use some such name as Liogryphaea (see Stenzel, 1947). Gunter (1950) seeking to avoid a suspension of the rules in favor of for the living oysters, proposes acceptance of Crassostrea, and several who work with living oysters have followed him in this usage (see, for example, Oyama, 1952). This is based on Gunter's feeling that cannot be accepted for any living genera [sic] of oysters. In the light of one bit of suggestive evidence, this view may be untenable, and the whole problem of Lamarck 1801 versus Lamarck 1819 would consequently become academic. If we can demonstrate that is not an extinct genus, but is actually living today, and does indeed include the Portuguese-Virginia-Japanese complex, the European usage is correct for both living and fossil species and there is no problem of nomenclature per se involved. (The matter of taxonomic convenience, it should be understood, is laid aside in this discussion.) Shell character in oysters is at best an incomplete criterion for the identification of species in oysters, and as Dechaseaux (1946) says (of Liostrea) specific determination est tres delicate et affaire d'appreciation personnelle. Nevertheless, the variations in shell structure in oysters have provided paleontologists with material for one of their classic studies in the variations of populations in successive strata. In this series of populations from the Jurassic beds of Europe, a successive series of overlapping populations with respect to the degree of curvature from a flat, oyster-like form to a true ramshorn Gryphaea, has been demonstrated (Fig. 1). According to Trueman (1922) such trends of variation have occurred several times during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, and the Gryphaea or end result of these trends is not a in the strict sense, but a form genus. Thus Gryphaea should properly be applied to only one of these end points, although it requires a very narrow conception of genus to assign the extremes of a continuous series of populations to different genera.'

Typification of Six Robert Brown Brassicaceae Names from Arctic North America

The object of the present communication is to describe two species of ferns of the family Thelypteridaceae discovered by Dr. Chandra during field work in India, and also two species represented by specimens noted by me in the Kew Herbarium. This family, comprising in all about one thousand species, almost all tropical, presents many complex problems both of taxonomy and nomenclature. I have been studying the Old World species for the past three years with a view to writing an account of the family in Flora Malesiana. I hope to present a new conspectus of genera, mainly Malesian, at a later date. I must however present a brief explanation of the generic names here adopted. It is generally admitted that the treatment of this family by Copeland in his Genera Filicum (1947) is unsatisfactory. He did not distinguish genera clearly and included them, with other groups not nearly related to them, in his family Aspidiaceae. The fact that natural species-groups within Thelypteridaceae have not yet been clearly distinguished has led various authors to conclude that the only satisfactory arrangement is to include all species in one genus Thelypteris. I believe however that it is possible, though difficult, to recognize species-groups, and that some of them should have generic rank; also that some generic names adopted by Copeland should be used with different circumscriptions. Copeland used the generic name Cyclosorus Link to include a very wide range of species. But that generic name was originally based on one species, C. gongylodes (Schkuhr) Link, a pantropic swamp-fern of similar habit to the temperate Thelypteris palustris Schott. It appears to me that the majority of species of Copeland's Cyclosorus are not at all closely related to the original species, and that they should have other generic names. Sphaerostephanos was established in 1839 by John Smith and applied only to a species with elongate sori; but it seems to me very clear that the original species is closely related to many others in Malesia which have round sori, and as it is the oldest name available for them I am adopting it with a wider circumscription. Here it is used for an Indian species which has hitherto never been fully described; Bory gave it a name in 1833, but his description was brief and has been misinterpreted. Dr. Chandra re-discovered the species, and by chance I recently discovered Bory's original specimens in the Paris Herbarium.

SummaryKnown validly published suprageneric names attributable to Araceae, including family names, are accounted for. Comments are made on nomenclatural problems in these ranks with particular reference to parenthetic author citation (sparingly accepted) and the apparently continuing illegitimate status (not accepted) of suprageneric names based on formerly illegitimate names that have been conserved. Table 1 lists the names alphabetically by the type generic name. Appendix 1 evaluates the status of each name in terms of the recent updating of Engler's system of the family; seven names must be changed. Appendix 2 and 3 add Anadendreae Bogner et French, trib. nov. and Bognereae Mayo et Nicolson, trib. nov., the latter based on Bognera Mayo et Nicolson, gen. nov.