Bulletin of Zoological Nomendcdure 197 PROPOSED USE OF THE PLENARY POWERS TO VALIDATE THE SPECIFIC NAME DENTIPES GU^RIN, 1832, AS PUBLISHED IN THE BINOMEN ALPHEUS DENTIPES (CLASS CRUSTACEA, ORDER DECAPODA). Z.N.{S.) 643 By L. B. Holthuis (Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historic, Leiden, Netherlands) The object of the present application is to protect the currently used name of a well-known species of Caridean shrimps from being displaced by a little -used subjective synonym pubUshed sixteen years earlier. The facts are set out below. 2. As I pointed out in a paper on the West African Caridean shrimps (Holthuis, 1951, Atlantide Rep. 2 : 71, 72), Nika variegata Risso, 1816 {Hist, not. Crust. Nice : 86) is identical with Alpheus dentipes Guerin, 1832 (Exped. sci. Moree, Zool. 2 : 39). As the name given by Risso to this species was published long before that given by Guerin, the latter is invaUd, and the correct name of the species is Alpheus variegatus (Risso). This change is, however, undesirable for the reasons given below. 3. After having described the species in 1816 as Nika variegata, Risso placed it in 1826 (Hist. nat. Europ. rrdrid. 5 : 78) in the genus Hippolyte [Leach], [1814] (which was spelled Hippolytes by Risso). Later authors cited the species as Hippolyte or Nika variegata, but did not recognise its true identity. Couti^re, 1899 {Ann. Sci. nat. Zool. (8) 9 : 9) thought Risso's species to be identical with Athanas nitescens (Leach) and I was of the same opinion in 1947 {Sihoga Exped. 39(a8) : 24, 25). Risso's description is very poor and his figure is even worse. This has obviously been the reason why the identity of the species was not recognised before 1951. 4. The specific name dentipes Guerin has been used for the present species by the majority of authors (at least 55 authors are known to have employed this name) and it is firmly estabHshed in carcinological literature. As far as I can ascertain, no other specific name has been used to indicate this species since 1900. 5. This species is currently referred to the genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798. All aspects of the nomenclature of this name were dealt with by the Commission in Opinion 334. The opportunity may be taken, however, to deal with erroneous subsequent speUings of the generic name Hippolyte [Leach], [1814] which were overlooked when that generic name was placed on the Official List in Opinion 470. 6. The substitution of the practically unknown and long misunderstood specific name variegatus Risso for the well-known specific name dentipes Guerin would greatly upset the currently stable nomenclature in this group of animals. For this reason it seems best to suppress the former in order to conserve the latter. I therefore ask the International C>)mmission on Zoological Nomenclature : Bull. tool. Nomencl. Vol. 17, pte. 6-8. April 1960.
Proposed use of the Plenary Powers to validate the specific name dentipes Guérin, 1832, as published in the binomen Alpheus dentipes (Class Crustacea, Order Decapoda) Z.N.(S.)643
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