WoRMS name details
original description
Ehrenberg, C.G. (1835). Das Leuchten des Meeres. Neue Beobachtungen nebst Übersicht der Hauptmomente der geschichtlichen Entwiclung dieses merkwürdigen Phänomens. Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 167pp., tables I-III, plates I-II., available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.82190 page(s): 16; note: actually as Nereides Sertularias fabricantes, taken from Linnaeus. See notes [details]
From editor or global species database
Validity It is very difficult to see this trinomen as ever a valid scientific name. Firstly Ehrenberg and earlier Linnaeus actually used Nereides, not Nereis. This would be a reference equivalent to the use today of nereids as vernacular common name for the family. Ehrenberg's work is an early review of what was then known on light-emitting biota. He mentions Nereides Sertularias fabricantes, italicised as if a scientific name (it would be a nomen nudum as there is no description), and quotes Linnaeus (1787: 202 vol 3 of "Amoenitates academicae") https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55937709 on Noctiluca marina as the source of the information. However, the Nereides mention by Linnaeus is on page 207, and it is difficult to see the three words as a species name. Rather it seems to be part of a Linnaeus text flow sentence indicating that the Nereides (nereids) and Sertularias (hydroids?) manufacture (fabricantes) light.
[details]
|