62 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature HESPERITES POMPECKJ, 1895 (CEPHALOPODA, AMMONOIDEA): PROPOSED SUPPRESSION UNDER THE PLENARY POWERS. Z.N.(S.) 1873 By D. T. Donovan {Department of Geology, University College, London) The generic name Hesperites was proposed by Pompeckj (1895, p. 24) with the type-species Hesperites clarae Pompeckj (1895, p. 24, pi. 2, figs, la-g, text-fig. 4) by monotypy. 2. The genus was named in a paper which reviewed the whole of the known ammonoid fauna of the Rhaetian Stage of the Triassic System. It was founded on a single specimen which had been found loose on the outcrop of the Kossener Schichten (Pompeckj, 1895, p. 27). Although the specimen showed resemblance to the Jurassic ammonite genus Schlotheimia Bayle, 1878, the possibility that it had fallen from a Jurassic outcrop at a higher level was re-jected by Pompeckj (op. cit. p. 27). Relationship with Schlotheimia was also rejected by Pompeckj on account of alleged difference of the suspensive lobe of the septal suture (Pompeckj op. cit. p. 29). 3. I have been unable to find any work in the primary palaeontological literature in which the genus Hesperites has been used by an author describing or revising the Triassic ammonoid fauna. Citations known to me are given in the following paragraphs. 4. The genus was listed without comment in Diener's Cephalopoda triadica (1915), a section of the Fossilium Catalogus which purports to record all genera and species of Triassic ammonoids named up to the date of compilation. No additional species of Hesperites were noted in part 2 of the same work (Kutassy, 1932). It was not included in the appropriate volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (Arkell et al., 1957), which purports to record all valid taxa down to generic level. It was not included in the Russian Osnovy Paleontologii (Luppoy & Druschitz, 1958). 5. Roman (1938, p. 59) in a survey of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonoid genera accepted Hesperites as a Triassic ancestor of the Jurassic Schlotheimia. Lange (1951, p. 18) in a monographic treatment of north German Schlothei-miinae discussed and rejected this view. He agreed with Pompeckj (see 2, above) that Hesperites was unlikely to be an ancestor of Schlotheimia. He pointed out that its closest resemblance was to a younger schlotheimiinae, Charmasseiceras, but thought that there was no reason to reject the well-established descent of Charmasseiceras from Schlotheimia. Lange, therefore, did not disagree with Pompeckj's view that Hesperites was unrelated to known Triassic or Jurassic genera, and he regarded the resemblance between Hesperites and Charmasseiceras as being due to convergence. Bull. zool. Nomencl., Vol. 26, Part 1. May 1969.
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