BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature48(1)March 1991 55 CommentsontheproposedconservationofthescorpionnamesButhusvittatusSay, 1821,CentrurushentziBanks, 1904and ButhusvittatusGuerinMeneville,|1838| (Arachnida,Scorpionida) (Case2637;seeBZN46: 233-235) (1) AntheaGentry Secretariat InternationalCommissiononZoologicalNomenclature , AsindicatedintheapplicationbyStockwell&Levi,Centruroidesvittatus(Say, 1821) is a well known species ofNorth American scorpion. Say clearly described a species fromGeorgiaandFlorida,ratherthanthespeciesfromTexasandsurroundingareasto whichthenameisnowapplied,andnomenclaturalconfusionwouldresultfromastrict adherencetotheCode. TheapplicationsoughttoconserveButhusvittatusfortheTexasspeciesbyusingthe plenarypowerstodeemWood(1863),whofirstdescribedthisspecies,tohavebeenthe authorofthename.Inconsequence,thejuniorsubjectivesynonymcurrentlyinusefor thescorpionfromGeorgiaand Florida, Centruroideshentzi(Banks, 1904),wouldalso be conserved. However, this procedure has a number of disadvantages. (1) Wood (1863) did not use vittatus as the valid name for the Texas scorpion. (2) The name vittatushasbeencitedfromSay(1821)inalargenumberofpublications(arepresenta- tivelistof50isheldbytheCommissionSecretariat;seepara. 5oftheapplication)and confusioncouldariseifthenamewerenowcitedasofadifferentauthoranddate(i.e. Wood, 1863). (3)WoodmisidentifiedtheTexasspeciesasScorpiocarolinianusPalisot deBeauvois, 1805andwronglycitedButhusvittatus(spelt'vitatus')asasynonymofthe latter. (4)The name vittatus, ifascribed toWood (1863), would appear42 yearslater than when cited from Say (1821); an unreplaced homonym, Buthus vittatus Guerin Meneville, [1838] (overlooked in Stockwell & Levi's application, see comment (3) below), junior to B. vittatus Say, 1821, becomes senior to B. vittatus Wood, 1863, renderingthelatterinvalid. ItnowappearsbettertoretainauthorshipofthenameButhusvittatusasSay(1821) and, by means ofthe plenarypowers, to designate a neotype fortheTexasspecies of scorpion for which the name is currently in use. A suitable specimen in the U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C., was mentioned in Stockwell & Levi's appli- cation(para.9).Thiscoursewouldalsoremovethesynonymyofvittatuswiththename hentziBanks, 1904.DrsStockwellandLevinowproposethat,insteadoftheproposals on BZN 46: 234, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature be asked: (1) to use its plenary powers to designate as the neotype of Buthus vittatus Say, 1821 theadultmalespecimenlabelled'Buthus vittatusSay, 1821,neotype,Det. S.A. Stockwell', from 'Brackettvile, Kinney Co., Texas, 21 May 1984 (S.A. Stockwell)'; (2) to place on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology the following names: (a) vittatusSay, 1821,aspublishedinthebinomenButhusvittatusandasdefined bytheneotypedesignatedin(1)above; (b) hentziBanks, 1904,aspublishedinthebinomen Centrurushentzi. ) 1 56 BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature48(1)March199 (2) VincentD. Roth Box136.Portal,Arizona85632, U.S.A. The appHcation for the conservation ofthe specific names ofButhus vittatus Say, 1821 and CentrurushentziBanks, 1904shouldbeaccepted.Theproposalwillstabilize theusageofthenamesforthesetwowellknownspeciesofscorpion. (3) W. DavidSissom DepartmentofBiology Elon College,North Carolina27244, U.S.A. , IfullyagreethatthenameButhusvittatusSay, 1821 shouldbeconservedtomaintain stability of nomenclature for what is perhaps the best known of North American scorpions,butanimportanthomonymhasbeenoverlooked.GuerinMeneville([1838], p. 50; seep. xii and Sherborn& Woodward, 1906, p. 336 forthedate ofpublication) described a species Buthus vittatus from Chile, presumably unaware ofSay's Buthus v77ro/H5inNorthAmerica.GuerinMeneville'si'iVram^wasreferredtothegenus5o//znM/-- usPeters,1861(p.510)byThorell(1876,pp. 168,270),andithassubsequentlybeencited inthatcombination.ThetaxonomichistoryofBothriurusvittatus(GuerinMeneville)is rathercomplicated, butithasgenerally beenconsidereda truespeciesforalongtime (severalsubspecieshavebeenproposedwhicharenowregardedaseitherspeciesthem- selvesorsynonymsofotherspecies). ItishighlydesirabletoretainBothriurusvittatus (Guerin Meneville, [1838]) since it iscurrently in use for a SouthAmerican scorpion. GuerinMeneville'sspecificnamevittatushasnot,forthelast115years,beenincludedin its original genus or been considered congeneric with either ofthe North American species which have been called vittatus. Although ajunior primary homonym, it has neverbeenreplaced(Articles52band60oftheCode).Toreplacethenamenowwouldbe pedanticandwouldcauseunnecessarydisruptionin thenomenclatureofthisspecies. Thespecieshasbeenincludedinthefollowingworks:Pocock(1893,p.94),Mello-Leitao (1945, pp. 191-192) and Maury (1981, p. 107). A representative fist ofa further 23 referencesdemonstratingusageofthenameisheldbytheCommissionSecretariat. TheInternationalCommissiononZoologicalNomenclatureisaccordinglyasked: (1 touseitsplenarypowerstorulethatthespecificnamevittatusGuerinMeneville, [1838], aspublished in the binomen Buthus vittatus, isnotinvalid by reason of beingajuniorprimaryhomonymofButhusvittatusSay, 1821; (2) to place on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology the name vittatus Guerin Meneville, [1838], as published in the binomen Buthus vittatus (not invaliddespitebeingajuniorprimaryhomonymofButhusvittatusSay, 1821). Additionalreferences GuerinMeneville,F.-E. [1838]. Arachnides. Pp. 47-56 i?j Lesson R.P. (Ed.), Voyageautourdu monde, executeparordredu Roi, surla corvettedesa Majeste, 'La Coquille',pendantles annees1822, 1823, 1824et 1825. ParL.l. Duperrey. Zoologie, vol. 2,part2.1. xii, 319pp. Bertrand,Paris. Maury,E.A. 1981.EstudiosobreelgeneroBothriurus(Scorpiones,Bothriuridae). 1.Catalogoy comentarios sobre el material tipico. Revista del Museo Argentina de Ciencas Naturales 'BernardinoRivadavia',4:95-111. Mello-Leitao, C. de. 1981. Escorpioes Sul-Americanos. Arquivos do Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro).40: 1^68. Peters, W. 1861. Scorpiones. Munatsberichte der Koniglichen Preussischen Akademie der WissenschaftenzuBerlin, 1861(1):507-520. ) . BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature48(1)March 1991 57 Pocock,R.I. 1893.AcontributiontothestudyofNeotropicalscorpions.AnnalsandMagazineof NalitmlHistory,(6)12(68):77-103. Sherborn,CD.&Woodward,B.B. 1906.—Notesonthedatesofpublicationofthenaturalhistory portions ofsome French voyages— 'Voyage autour du monde... la Coquille pendant... 1822-25...byL.I. Duperrey", Ec. acorrection. AnnalsandMagazineofNaturalHistory, (7)17(99):335-336. Thorell,T. 1876. Etudesscorpiologiques.AttidellaSocielaItalianadiScienzeNaturali.Milano, 19:75-272. Wood, H.C. 1863. On the Pedipalpi ofNorth America. Journal ofthe Academy ofNatural SciencesofPhiladelphia,(2)5(4):357-376. CommentsontheproposedconservationofthespecificnameArtemiafranciscana Kellogg, 1906(Crustacea,Branchiopoda) (Case2728;seeBZN47: 178-183) (1 P. Sorgeloos,P. Lavens&W.Tackaert Artemia Reference Center, Faculty of Agricultural Science, Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Rozier44, B-9000Gent, Belgium Itiswithgreatinterestthatwehaveread theproposedconservationofthenameof thebroadlydistributedNorthAmericanbrineshrimpspeciesArtemiafranciscana. SincethepublicationofBowenetal. (1978)thisnamehasbeenfullyacceptedinthe literature.ExceptforthepaperbyAmatDomenech(1980;seeBZN47: 180,para.6)we do notknowofanyrecentpublicationwhichhasusedasynonymo{franciscana,and wesupporttheproposalsonBZN47: 180-181 (2) FranciscoAmat Institut de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,RiberodeCabanes, 12595 TorredelaSal, Castellon, Spain I support theproposalsbyBelkand Bowen,whichwillclarify thenomenclatureof NorthAmericanArtemia. (3) Support for the proposals on BZN 47: 180-181 has also been received from the following: ProfC. Barigozzi{DipartimentodiGeneticaediBiologiadeiMicrorganismi, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 26. 20133 Milano, Italy); Dr Laura Torrentera Blanco {Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin53706,f/.S.^.);DrA.M.Maeda-Martinez(/«5///M/eo/£co/ogj,Universityof Gent,K.Ledeganckstraat35.B-9000Gent,Belgium);DrGraziellaMura{Dipartimento diBiologiaAnimaleedell'Uomo, UniversitadiRoma 'LaSapienza',Roma,Italy). CommentsontheproposedprecedenceofBathynomusA.MilneEdwards, 1879 (Crustacea,Isopoda)overPalaegaWoodward, 1870 (Case2721;seeBZN47: 27-29,212-213,290-293) (1) SergiodeAlmeida Rodrigues Instituto de Biociencias, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 11461 Sao Paulo, , Brazil In my opinion Bathynomus should be given precedence over Palaega. To drop the widely recognized name Bathynomus would create a lot oftrouble among non-