Kakui, K. & D. Uyeno. (2020). New replacement name for a homonym in Lepeophtheirus (Crustacea: Copepoda: Caligidae). Zootaxa. 4852(1):143-144. Sep 2020.

388833

10.11646/zootaxa.4852.1.9 [view]

Kakui, K. & D. Uyeno

2020

4852(1):143-144. Sep 2020

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Markevich (1940) established Pseudolepeophtheirus Markevich, 1940 for Pseudolepeophtheirus longicauda Markevich, 1940 based on copepods collected from the pleuronectid fish Platichthys stellatus (Pallas, 1787). Dojiri & Ho (2013) synonymized the genus and the species with Lepeophtheirus Nordmann, 1832 and Lepeophtheirus parvicruris Fraser, 1920, respectively. Later, Homma et al. (2020) resurrected Markevich’s species as a member of Lepeophtheirus, i.e., as L. longicauda (Markevich, 1940). The last component of the names of both genera is ‘phtheirus’ (transliterated from the Greek φθειρ; Nordmann 1832: 30), a masculine noun, and thus under Article 30.1.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (hereinafter, Code; International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999), both generic names are also masculine. The species-group name longicauda might be regarded as either a noun in apposition or as an adjective in the feminine gender, and Markevich (1940) did not specify his intention in this regard. Bearing in mind that ‘cauda’, meaning ‘tail’, actually is a feminine Latin noun and that Markevich did not change the final ‘-a’ to ‘-us’ to match the masculine gender of the genus, we deem that longicauda Markevich, 1940 is a noun in apposition, a position supported by Article 31.2.2 of the Code. Cressey (1966) described the caligid Dentigryps longicauda Cressey, 1966 based on copepods collected from the carangid fish Caranx hippos (Linnaeus, 1766). Hewitt (1971: 333) synonymized Dentigryps Wilson, 1913 with Lepeophtheirus and proposed Lepeophtheirus longicauda as a new combination for Cressey’s species. Walter & Boxshall (2018), however, listed Lepeophtheirus longicaudus (Cressey, 1966) as the valid name for this nominal species in the ‘World of Copepods’ database, a work not considered ‘published’ in the sense of the Code, while inaccurately citing Hewitt (1971) as the source for this combination. Walter & Boxshall (2018) appear to have treated longicauda Cressey, 1966 as an adjective, changing its ending to ‘-us’, whereas we deem it a noun in apposition for reasons similar to those given above for longicauda Markevich, 1940. The generic name Dentigryps is derived from “dens, a prong or tooth, and gryps, a griffin” (Wilson 1913: 221) and, like the Greek noun ‘gryps’, it is masculine. Cressey did not change the final ‘-a’ of ‘cauda’ to ‘-us’ to match the gender of this generic name, so he evidently intended longicauda as a noun. The final component ‘cauda’ actually is a Latin noun and, furthermore, an interpretation of this specific name as a noun is supported by Article 31.2.2 of the Code. Lepeophtheirus longicauda (Cressey, 1966) is a junior secondary homonym of L. longicauda (Markevich, 1940) and is thus deemed invalid under Article 59.1 of the Code as long as these two nominal species are considered congeneric. As there are no available and potentially valid synonyms of the former species, we propose a new substitute name for L. longicauda (Cressey, 1966) to meet the requirements of Articles 23.3.5 and 60.3 of the Code.

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