Re: Ercolania viridis? from Tunisia

June 7, 2003
From: Kathe R. Jensen

Dear Bill & Anis,
These animals look exactly like the ones I identified as Ercolania funerea during the workshop in Sicily in 1999. Ercolania funerea is a synonym of E. viridis. I think Vaysierre selected E. funerea as the valid name, but I cannot remember his reasoning. E. viridis is the oldest name, but since there is also a Stiliger viridis and a Placida viridis, and Ercolania viridis was originally described as Embletonia, which might conceivably be either one of the above 3 genera, I have been using E. funerea to avoid confusion. I wrote a short "popular" paper about the problem of naming a green slug "viridis" many years ago:

• Jensen, K.R. 1984. A nomenclatural problem in the Ascoglossa - or: Why one should never name a green sea-slug "viridis". Shells and Sea Life, 16: 188-190.

Best wishes,
Kathe Jensen

krjensen@zmuc.ku.dk

Thanks Kathe,
I had noted that 'viridis' had been used a lot and as you say it makes it very confusing. However since Embletonia funerea Costa 1867 was published a year later than Embletonia viridis Costa, 1867, I can't see Vayssiere had any valid nomenclatural grounds for using Ercolania funerea rather than Ercolania viridis. I note that Pruvot-Fol (1954) and Ortea & Urgorri (1981) also consider E. funerea to be a synonym.

I guess it is confusing to use Ercolania viridis but it is also confusing NOT to use it, since it appears to be the valid name.

• Costa, A. (1866) Saggio sui molluschi eolididei del Golfo di Napoli. Annuario del Museo Zoologico della Universita di Napoli, 3(2): 59-80.
• Costa, A. (1867) Saggio sui molluschi eolididei del Golfo di Napoli. Annuario del Museo Zoologico della Universita di Napoli, 4(2): 26-37, pls. 1-2.
• Ortea, J.A. & Urgorri, V. (1981) Opisthobranquios nuevos para el litoral iberico colectados en Galicia. I. Boletin del Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia, 6(288): 49-60.
• Pruvot-Fol, A. (1954): Mollusques Opisthobranches Faune de France, 58: 1-460, Pl.1.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Jun 7). Comment on Re: Ercolania viridis? from Tunisia by Kathe R. Jensen. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10165

Factsheet

Ercolania viridis

Related messages

  1. Ercolania? from Tunisia
    From: J. Ben Souissi and A. Eters, July 28, 2003
  2. Re: Ercolania viridis from Tunisia
    From: J. Ben Souissi & A. Eters, June 7, 2003
  3. Ercolania viridis? from Tunisia
    From: Anis Eters, June 4, 2003
  4. Re: Ercolania funerea from the Black Sea
    From: Kathe R. Jensen, November 8, 2002
  5. Ercolania funerea from the Black Sea
    From: Alex. Kurakin, November 7, 2002
  6. Re: Opisthobranch from the Black Sea.
    From: Kathe R. Jensen, October 30, 2002
  7. Opisthobranch from the Black Sea.
    From: Alex Kurakin, October 29, 2002

Show factsheet and all related messages