Case 2842. Naucrates Rafinesque, 1810 and Xyrichtys Cuvier, 1814 (Osteichthyes, Perciformes): proposed conservation

5 Pages·1993·1.1 MB·English

by  J E Randall

BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature50(4)December1993 277
Case2842
Naucrates Raflnesque, 1810 and Xyyichtys Cuvier, 1814 (Osteichthyes,
Perciformes): proposed conservation
John E. Randall
Bishop Museum. Box 19000-A. Honolulu. Hawaii96817. U.S.A.
M.L. Bauchot
Museum Nationald'HistoireNaturelle. Laboratoired'lchtyologie,
43 rue Cuvier. 75231 Pariscedex05, France
Abstract.The purpose of this application is to conserve the names Naucrates
Rafinesque, 1810andXyrichtysCuvier, 1814whicharebothinuse.Thefirstrefers
tothemonotypicpilotfishA^.ductor(Linnaeus, 1758)(familycarangidae),apelagic
species which occurs in all tropical and temperate seas and is common in the
Mediterranean. The second relates to the genus ofabout 20 species ofrazorfishes
(familylabridae)whichoccurcircumgloballyintropical,subtropicalandtemperate
seas, also including the Mediterranean. Both names are threatened by the senior
subjective synonym Hemipteronoius Lacepede, 1801, for which suppression is
proposed. It is also proposed that Centronotus Lacepede, 1801, an unused senior
objectivesynonymofNaucrates.besuppressed.
1. Linnaeus (1758, p. 261), following and expanding on Willughby (1686, pp.
213-216), included two species of razorfishes (family labridae) among the five
species (hippurus. equiselis, pentadactyla, novacula and pompilus) of his genus
Coryphaena (now family coryphaenidae, the dolphins; type species C. hippurus
Linnaeus, 1758 bysubsequentdesignationofJordan &Gilbert, 1883, p.454). The
tworazorfishspecieswere CoryphaenanovaculaoftheAtlanticand Mediterranean
and C pentadactyla. an Indo-Pacific razorfish, themales ofwhich havefive or six
darkred spotsinarowbehindtheeye.
2. The nominal species Coryphaena pentadactyla Linnaeus, 1758 (p. 261) was
itself composite. Linnaeus based his description on three sources: (1) 'Blennius
maculis 5 utrinque versus caput nigris', from Act. Stockh. (i.e. Memoirs of
Stockholm). 1740,vol. 1, p.460,pi. 3.fig. 2; (2) Valent. (forValentijn, 1724),amb.
(for Amboin). part 5, p. 435, pi. 292; (3) Will. icht. (for Willughby. 1686)
appendix, p. 7, pi. 8, fig. 2. The first ofthese refers to the Indo-Pacific razorfish
(mentioned in para. 1 above) and the third to the pilotfish, also listed else-
where in Systema Naturae as Gasterosteus ductor Linnaeus. 1758 (p. 295; family
carangidae). The inclusion of the reference to Willughby (1686, pi. 8, fig. 2)
originated in the latter's use of the Dutch name 'Viif Vinger Visch" for the
pilotfish, figured from a drawing by Nieuhof, so that Linnaeus confused thiswith
the Indo-Pacific razorfish with itsfive orsix spotsbehindtheeye. Gmehn ([1789],
pp. 1191-1192) corrected the error by omitting the reference to Willughby under
278 BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature50(4)December1993
Coryphaena pentadactyla, thereby restricting tiie name to tiie razorfish. Bloch
(1787, p. 115), Cuvier (1815, p. 329) and Valenciennes (1840, pp. 64-69) com-
mented that Linnaeushadmistakenly included twodifferent taxa underthename,
and acceptedpentadactylafortherazorfish. WiththeexceptionofLacepede(1801)
(see para. 3 below), this interpretation of pentadactyla has been followed
consistently by subsequent authors; the taxon is currently known as Xyrichtys
pentadactyla(seeparas. 7and 8 below).
3. Lacepede(1801, p. 214)erected Hemipieronotusfortwonewnominalspecies,
H. gmelini and H. qidnquemaculatiis. The former, for which Lacepede gave two
fin-raycounts(dorsalrays14andpelvicrays8),wasregardedbyValenciennes(1840,
pp.35,65)asunidentifiable;Valenciennesnotedthatitmayhavebeenaholocentrid.
H. quinquemaculatiis was proposed for Themipteronote cinq-taches'; Coryphaena
pentadactyla was included (p. 215), attributed to Gmelin, [1789], among its syn-
onyms. Lacepede cited Linnaeus's synonyms for C. pentadactyla, including the
Willughbyreferencetothepilotfish.
4. Lacepede's (1801, p. 214) description ofH. quinquemaculatiis was based on
Bonnaterre's (1788, p. 59, pi. 33, fig. 126) reproduction ofNieuhofs drawing of
Gasterosteusductor(usedpreviouslybyWillughby, 1686,appendix,pi. 8,fig.2;see
para. 2 above), and described by Bonnaterre (p. 59) as Coryphaenapentadactyla.
Lacepede (p. 215 and footnote) derived the name 'hemipteronote' from the
Greek words for 'half, 'fin' and 'back', and wrote that the name was intended
to indicate the shortness of the dorsal fin and its similarity to that of the
coryphaenids. This is an obvious reference to the short, posteriorly placed dorsal
finofGasterosteusductor.Cuvier(1815,p. 329)notedthat,althoughLinnaeushad
included two taxa under the name Coryphaenapentadactyla (see para. 2 above),
Lacepede had considered only one of them (the pilotfish) when he founded
Hemipteronotus. Valenciennes (1840, p. 68), in discussing Lacepede's ill-founded
Hemipteronotus, wrote; 'J'ai ete bien long-temps a concevoir comment, ayant
sous les yeux toutes les figures qu'il cite dans sa synonymic, il avait pu attribuer
a I'espece un caractere de tout point oppose a la verite; et j'ai ete oblige de
conclure, que de tant de figures il n'en avait qu'une, et precisement la fausse,
celle de Nieuhof, copiee par Bonnaterre'. Bleeker (1862, p. 414) designated
H. quinquemaculatus as the type species ofHemipteronotus. Subsequently Jordan
(1917, p. 61) cited quinquemaculatus as a synonym of Coryphaena pentadactyla
'Gmelin'.
5. Lacepede(1801,pp.309,311)establishedthenameCentronotusforagenusof
nine nominal species, including 'Gasterosteus conductor Linnaeus' (Le centronote
pilote';heintendedG. ductorLinnaeus).Willughby's(1686,pi.8,fig.2)referenceto
thepilotfishwasincludedamongthesynonymies.Rafinesque(1810,p.43)founded
Naucrates for two nominal species, including Centronotus conductor Lacepede;
Jordan&Gilbert(1883,p.443)designated'NaucratesconductorRaf.,=Gasterosteus
ductor Linn.' as the type species. Jordan (1917, p. 62) used the same notation in
designating a type for Centronotus Lacepede, rendering the latter name a senior
objectivesynonymofNaucrates. Until recently,vol. 3ofLacepede'swork Histoire
naturelledespoissons,inwhichthenameCentronotusappeared,wasthoughttodate
from 1802. On this basis Jordan (1917, pp. 62, 80) considered the fish name
CentronotusBloch&Schneider, 1801 (p. 165;ajuniorobjectivesynonymofPholis
BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature50(4)December1993 279
Scopoli, 1777 (see Eschmeyer, 1990, pp. 89, 312); family pholidae) to bea senior
homonym of Cenlronotus Lacepede and noted that the latter was replaced by
Naucrates; the name Naiicrates has consistently been used for the pilotfish. Roux
(1973,p.34)demonstratedthatLacepede'svol.3datesfrom16October1801.Toour
knowledge, an exact date for Bloch's (1801) work (published posthumously by
Schneider)hasnotbeenascertained,andpublicationmustthereforebedeemedtobe
31 December 1801 (Article21c(ii)oftheCode). Itisverydesirablethattheunused
name Cenlronotus Lacepede be suppressed toallowcontinued usageofNaucrates,
andthiswenowpropose.
6. Cuvier (1814, p. 87; 1815, p. 324) noted that Linnaeus (1758) had included
razorfishes withdolphins in Coryphaena(see para. 1 above) and erected thegenus
XyrichtysCuvier, 1814for the razorfishes. Cuvier(1814, p. 87) noted the nameas
'XYRICHTEXyrichlys': thiswascorrectedto Xyrichtysin Cuvier(1815,p. 329). The
namehasbeenspelt Xyrichthysbyanumberofsubsequent authors. Cuvier(1814)
includedin Xyrichtysthespecies Coryphaenanovaculaand C.pentadactyla,bothof
Linnaeus (1758), and the American parrotfish C. coendea Bloch, 1786 (p. 148, pi.
176), the last ofwhich was mistakenly included by Bloch (1787, p. 120, pi. 186)
amongthedolphins.Jordan&Gilbert(1883,p. 605)designated X. novaculaasthe
typespeciesofXyrichtys.AspecimenintheLinnaeanfishcollectioninLondonhas
beenascribedtothisspecies(seeWheeler, 1985,p. 65).
7. Hemipteronotus Lacepede, 1801 was treated by some authors as the valid
name for the razorfishes, based on the restriction by early authors ofthe name
pentadactyla to this group (para. 2 above). However, Bauchot & Quignard (1973,
p. 442) renewed attention to the identity of the Nieuhof drawing in Willughby
(1686) and Bonnaterre (1788) as Naucrates ductor. The meaning of H. quin-
quemaculatus, the type species of Hemipteronotus, is composite and confused,
relating by description to the pilotfish (now A^. ductor) and by reference both to
the latter and to the razorfish (C. pentadactyla) (see paras. 3 and 4 above).
Bauchot & Quignard (1973) adopted XyrichtysCuvier, 1814 as the next available
namefortherazorfish, and thishasbeen followed since. Eschmeyer(1990,p. 179)
recorded Hemipteronotus as a synonym ofXyrichtys. It is also a senior subjective
synonymofNcnicratesRafinesque, 1810.
8. Bothnames NaucratesRafinesqueandXyrichtysCuvierareusedconsistently
forthemonotypiccarangidpilotfishA^. ductor(Linnaeus)andforthe20speciesof
labrid razorfishes respectively. Recent works in which the names have appeared
include Smith-Vaniz(1984, 1986; Naucrates);Gomon (1984) andQuignard&Pras
(1986){Xyrichtys);Dor(1984),Smith&Heemstra(1986),Masuda,Amaoka,Araga,
Uyeno & Yoshino (1988) and Randall, Allen & Steene (1990) (both names). A
representativelistofafurtherfivepublicationssince1980demonstratingusageofthe
names is held by the Commission Secretariat. Fernholm & Wheeler(1983, p. 243)
believed threespecimensin the LinnaeancollectioninStockholmtobepartofthe
typeseriesofN. ductor.
9. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is accordingly
asked:
(1) touseitsplenarypowerstosuppressthefollowinggenericnames:
(a)HemipteronotusLacepede,1801forthepurposesofthePrincipleofPriority
butnotforthoseofthePrincipleofHomonymy;
280 BulletinofZoologicalNomenclature50(4)December1993
(b)CentronotusLacepede, 1801,andailusesofthenameCentronoluspriorto
thepublicationofCentronotusBloch&Schneider, 1801,forthepurposes
ofboththePrincipleofPriorityandthePrincipleofHomonymy;
(2) toplaceontheOfficialListofGenericNamesinZoologythefollowingnames:
(a)Naucrates Rafinesque, 1810 (gender: masculine), type species by sub-
sequent designation by Jordan & Gilbert (1883) Gasterosteus ductor
Linnaeus, 1758;
(b)Xyrichtys Cuvier, 1814 (gender: masculine), type species by subsequent
designation by Jordan & Gilbert (1883) Coryphaena novacula Linnaeus,
1758;
(3) toplaceontheOfficialListofSpecificNamesinZoologythefollowingnames:
(a)ductor Linnaeus, 1758, as published in the binomen Gasterosteus ductor
(specificnameofthetypespeciesofNaucratesRafinesque, 1810);
(b)novaculaLinnaeus,1758,aspublishedinthebinomenCoryphaenanovacula
(specificnameofthetypespeciesofXyrichtysCuvier, 1814);
(4) to place on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in
Zoologythefollowingnames:
(a)HemipteronotusLacepede, 1801,assuppressedin(l)(a)above;
(b)CentronotusLacepede, 1801,assuppressedin(l)(b)above.
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