Bull. zool. Norn., vol. 43, pt 4, December 1 986 335 FILELLUM SERPENS (HASSALL, 1848) (CNIDARIA, HYDROZOA): PROPOSED CONSERVATION OF BOTH GENERIC AND SPECIFIC NAMES. Z.N.(S.)2508 By Paul F. S. Cornelius (Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K.) and Dale R. Calder (Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S2C6 and Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S lAI) Introduction The hydroid species Filellum serpens (Hassall, 1 848) is common and near-cosmopolitan in recorded distribution, but it happens that neither the genus name nor the species name applied to it is the oldest available. Strict application of the Code would cause confusion and a case is made for the conservation of both names. Coppinia Hassall, 1848 With the exception of a single genus {Cryptolarella Stechow, 1913, p. 138), hydroids of the nominotypical subfamily lafoeinae of the family LAFOEiDAE Hincks, 1868 (p. 198) have aggregated gonophores known as coppiniae. Resembling muffs or nests, coppiniae occur on the stems and larger branches of erect species and on the stolons of those which are reptant, and in several genera are protected by a tangle of modified hydrothecal tubes. Such aggregated gonophores were initially beheved to be distinct taxa grow-ing as parasites or epizoites on other hydroids. The term coppinia is derived from the genus name Coppinia Hassall, 1 848 (p. 2223; described more fully in Hassall & Coppin, 1852, p. 160), established to accommodate a supposedly parasitic hydroid later shown (Levinsen, 1893, p. 162) to have been just such clustered lafoeid gonophores. Although scarcely used this century, the name Coppinia is available and threatens the familiar and widely used name Filellum Hincks, 1868 (p. 214), a name introduced in a well known monograph on hydroids. Filellum serpens (Hassall, 1848) (p. 2223, as Campanularia), type species of Filellum by monotypy, is a stolonal species commonly found epizoic on other hydroids in all oceans. It is inconspicuous except for its relatively large coppiniae, but is distinctive and often reported in faunal surveys. 2. The species name serpens was published in 1848 by Gray also (p. 151, as 'Capsularia serpens, n.s.; Campanularia serpens Hassall, mss'). Although the exact dates of publication of Gray's or Hassall's works could not easily be ascertained, Sherborn (1926, p. 272) recorded Gray's work being shown to the Trustees of the British Museum on 31 August 1848 for approval prior to pubHcation. A note inside a copy in the British Museum (Natural History) library records the receipt of the published copy by the
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