Talitrid amphipods from India, East Africa and the Red Sea (Amphipoda, Senticaudata, Talitroidea, Talitridae)
Author
Lowry, J. K.
Author
Springthorpe, R. T.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-07-17
4638
3
351
378
journal article
26184
10.11646/zootaxa.4638.3.3
6cceabcf-a2f2-4b6b-84f8-e6447683e1a1
1175-5326
3338744
538D4123-B845-40F2-9B3A-39885EFF7FB0
The
Talorchestia franchetti
and
Talorchestia affinis
problem
Maccagno (1936)
studied a large collection of talitrids (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova) from a beach in Assab,
Eritrea
. He considered them to be two species, the smaller (
6–7 mm
) which he called
Talorchestia franchetti
Maccagno, 1936
and the larger (
9–10 mm
) he called
Talorchestia affinis
Maccagno, 1936
. Although he described the species, he did not designate
types
, did not illustrate the species and did not adequately distinguish it from other species. The species are not identifiable from the descriptions. We borrowed these specimens from the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale “Giacomo Doria”. In fact the specimens of
T. franchetti
Maccagno, 1936
are almost certainly immature specimens of
T. affinis
.
Because Maccagno’s original material came from near the collection site of our material and because we have material on either side of Maccagno’s site and to conserve his original name we are designating a
lectotype
for
T. affinis
and a
lectotype
for
T. franchetti
, which we consider to be a junior objective synonym of
T. affinis
.