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CALLOPANCHAX MYERS 1933 (PISCES): REQUEST FOR A RULING
AS TO THE TYPE-SPECIES. Z.N.(S.) 1910
By G. S. Myers {Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.)
The purpose of the present application is to ask the International Com-
mission for a ruling on the question of the species to be accepted as the type-
species of the genus-group taxon Callopanchax Myers, 1933. This case involves
a misidentified type-species, and the possible objective synonymization of
Callopanchax Myers, 1933, with Fundulopanchax Myers, 1924.
2. Myers (1924 : 2) proposed the new genus Aphyosemion Myers, 1924,
with A. castaneum Myers, 1924, sp. nov., as its designated type-species. There
is no question in regard to this name.
3. In the same paper (Myers, 1924 : 4) 1 proposed, as a sub-genus of
Aphyosemion, the new subgeneric name Fundulopanchax Myers, 1924, with
Fundulus gularis var. caerulea Boulenger (1915 : 30) as its designated type, at
the same time raising var. caerulea to species rank, in the combination Aphyo-
semion {Fundulopanchax) caeruleum (Boulenger). This species was clearly
figured by me in Fig. 3. Due to subsequent name changes, it will be most
convenient hereinafter to refer to A. caeruleum under its vernacular name,
"blue gularis", under which it has invariably been known to aquarists from
about the year 1910 to the present day. No doubt attaches to the zoological
entity know as the "blue gularis" or Aphyosemion caeruleum, although
caeruleum has now disappeared as a subjective junior synonym of another name
(see below).
4. Myers (1933 : 184), in a revision of the generic limits of the African
genera related to Aphyosemion, divided that genus into three subgenera:
Aphyosemion, sensu stricto; Fundulopanchax Myers, 1924; and Callopanchax
Myers, 1933, subgen. nov., giving, as generic type of Callopanchax, the species
Fundulus sjoestedti Lonnberg, 1895. Only the type-species was referred by me
(Myers, 1933) to the monospecific subgenus Callopanchax. In this 1933 paper,
the taxonomy of the species was not revised, but all nominal species and sub-
species names then accepted were listed under their proper genera and subgenera.
I had not then seen all the species, but to the name of each species of which I
had seen the type specimens I appended a footnote reference, stating: "Types
examined". No such footnote was appended to my Usting of Aphyosemion
sjoestedti (Lonnberg), the type-species of Callopanchax, because I had not seen
Lonnberg's type of that taxon, which is preserved in Stockholm. As in the
case of the "blue gularis" mentioned above as the type-species of Fundulopanchax
Myers, 1924, it will aid in clarity to use the vernacular name for the species
which I called Aphyosemion sjoestedti in 1933 and which I gave as the type-
species of Callopanchax; since about 1910, and up until the present, aquarists
have uniformly used the name "golden pheasant" for that species.
5. In evaluating my usage of species names in 1933, it will be helpful to
point out that, until very recently, the species classification (as distinguished
from the generic classification) of the African Cyprinodontidae now under
Bull. zool. Nomencl., Vol. 27, Parts 5/6. March 1971
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature '2A1
discussion was that presented by Boulenger (1915 ; and the addenda in Boulenger
1916). Although many new species had been added to those treated in
Boulenger's major work, no important attempts at a revision of the generic and
subgeneric limits which I proposed in 1933, and no major revisions of
Boulenger's species treatment, were made until the decade of the 1960's. My
1933 listings of the older species names pubUshed prior to Boulenger (1915;
1916) followed Boulenger's treatment in detail, except for the raising of his var.
caerulea to species rank as Aphyosemion caeruleum.
6. It must especially be noted that my 1933 concept of what Boulenger
(1915 : 38-39) called Fundulus sjoestedti (Lonnberg), which is the species that I
cited in 1933 as the type of Callopanchax Myers, 1933, followed Boulenger
precisely. The subgenus Callopanchax was based primarily on a high count of
dorsal and anal fin rays, and the count-limits that I gave for Callopanchax were
derived from Boulenger's description of ''Fundulus sjoestedti" (Boulenger,
1915 : 38). Moreover, the geographical range that 1 gave for Callopanchax
was copied directly from Boulenger (1915 : 38-39) and from his addenda
(Boulenger, 1916 : 325). Aside from Boulenger's accounts just cited, I had
only a single preserved specimen of the species I chose as type of Callopanchax;
it was almost certainly the only museum specimen of that fish in North America
in 1933. It is in the U.S. National Museum (Register no. 94316). It was an
aquarium specimen (male) of the "golden pheasant", without locality data, and
it agreed well with Boulenger's 1915 figure of the male and his description of
"Fundulus sjoestedti". From these data it will be abundantly clear that the
type-species I chose for Callopanchax Myers, 1933, was the "golden pheasant",
which was described and figured by Boulenger as Fundulus sjoestedti (Lonnberg).
Moreover, the matter is verifiable by examination of my specimen (USNM
94316).
7. Stenholt Clausen (1966; 1967) has recently examined the type specimen
of Fundulus sjoestedti Lonnberg, 1895, in Stockholm, and finds that it is not an
example of the "golden pheasant", as Boulenger (1915 : 1916) and all sub-
sequent writers had presumed. Instead, the type specimen of F. sjoestedti is an
example of the "blue gularis". Thus the species that was previously and in-
variably called Aphyosemion caeruleum (Boulenger, 1915) falls as a junior
subjective synonym of Aphyose/nion sjoestedti (Lonnberg, 1895), the latter
combination being thus transferred from the "golden pheasant" to the "blue
gularis". There being no available synonyms, the "golden pheasant" was thus
left without a species name, and Stenholt Clausen (1966 : 331) proposed
Aphyosemion occidentale S. Clausen, 1966, sp. nov., for it.
8. However, towards the end of the same paper, Stenholt Clausen (1966 :
338), proposed Roloffia S. Clausen, gen. nov., with Aphyosemion occidentale
S. Clausen of the same paper (p. 331) as type-species, and uses the new com-
bination Roloffia occidentalis for the "golden pheasant". For explanation of
this act, Stenholt Clausen refers to a then unpubUshed paper (Stenholt Clausen,
1967). It is of zoological but not nomenclatural importance that I do not
consider the taxon called Roloffia or Callopanchax to be worthy of generic rank.
9. In the last-mentioned paper (1967 : 22) Stenholt Clausen admitted that
the "golden pheasant" had uniformly been known as Aphyosemion sjoestedti
248 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature
previous to his publication of 1966. He also admitted that the "golden
pheasant" was almost surely the species I had in mind when I made Fundulus
sjoestedti the type-species of Callopanchax in 1933. However, Stenholt Clausen
raised doubts as to what species I had intended as type of Callopanchax by
pointing out that almost the only character I used for defining Callopanchax
(dorsal and anal fin-ray counts) is not wholly diagnostic, and that the geo-
graphical range I gave was not that nowadays known for the "golden pheasant",
the only species that I referred to Callopanchax in 1933. Stenholt Clausen
ignored (or did not verify) the fact that both the fin-ray counts and the geo-
graphical range I gave for Callopanchax were copied in toto from Boulenger's
account of "Fundulus sjoestedti" (Boulenger, 1915 : 38-39; 1916 : 325). It is
therefore completely verifiable from the literature alone (quite apart from any
examination of my specimen in Washington) that the definition and range of
Callopanchax given by me in 1933 for that monospecific subgenus were drawn
entirely and verbatim from Boulenger's 1915 and 1916 accounts of "Fundulus
sjoestedti" (that is, the "golden pheasant").
10. Stenholt Clausen (1967 : 22) also makes the claim that if I had really
intended the "golden pheasant" to be the type of Callopanchax in 1933, his
discovery (of 1966-1967) that the "golden pheasant" had become nameless
(because he had transferred the name sjoestedti to the "blue gularis") the
generic-group name Callopanchax was invalidated because it no longer had a
named type-species. I can find no provision of the Code to support the claim
that a generic-group name is invalidated when its type-species is found to be
misidentified and is temporarily nameless. Moreover, the type-species of
Callopanchax was never left nameless, because Stenholt Clausen (1966), in the
same paper in which he shifted the name sjoestedti to the "blue gularis" provided
its type-species (the "golden pheasant") with the new name occidentale. At
best (or worst) the account of the "golden pheasant" given by Boulenger
(1915 : 38-39; 1916 : 325) was a composite based upon the "golden pheasant"
(which is the species figured) and possibly a few specimens of related populations.
11. Stenholt Clausen (1967 : 22) stated: "It is, in fact, almost certain that
Myers [1933] had the undescribed form [the "golden pheasant"] in mind [as the
type species of Callopanchax], as its identity with Fundulus sjoestedti Lonnberg
has never been questioned prior to 1966". Nevertheless, Stenholt Clausen
proceeded as if the type-species of Callopanchax had not been misidentified,
which resulted in Fundulopanchax Myers, 1924 (type caeruleum Boulenger,
1915 = sjoestedti Lonnberg, 1895) and Callopanchax Myers, 1933 (type
sjoestedti Lonnberg, 1895 = caeruleum Boulenger, 1915) being considered by
Stenholt Clausen to have been based on the same species. I must dissent from
the impUed conclusion that I based two new generic names on the same species!
I have already demonstrated that I did not do so, and also that the facts are
verifiable from the literature alone, to say nothing of the evidence provided
by the only specimen of the "golden pheasant" available to me in 1933. The
subgenus Callopanchax Myers, 1933, was clearly based upon a misidentified
type-species, Fundulus sjoestedti Boulenger, 1915 (nee Fundulus sjoestedti
Lonnberg, 1895), which equals Aphyosemion occidentale Stenholt Clausen,
1966.
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 249
12. In order to clear up the case, the Commission is requested:
(1) to use its plenary powers to suppress all designations of type-species for
the nominal genus Callopanchax Myers, 1933, hitherto made and to
designate Aphyosemion occidentale Stenholt Clausen, 1966, as type-
species of that genus ;
(2) to place the folloiving names on the Official List of Generic Names in
Zoology:
(a) Callopanchax Myers, 1933 (gender: masculine), type-species by
designation under the plenary powers in (1) above, Aphyosemion
occidentale Stenholt Clausen, 1966;
(b) Fundulopanchax Myers, 1924 (gender: masculine), type-species by
original designation Fundulus gularis var. caerulea Boulenger,
1915.
(3) to place the following names on the Official List of Specific Names in
Zoology :
(a) occidentale Stenholt Clausen, 1966, as published in the binomen
Aphyosemion occidentale (type-species of Callopanchax Myers,
1933);
(b) caerulea Boulenger, 1915, as published in the combination Fundulus
gularis var. caerulea (type-species of Fundulopanchax Myers,
1924);
(4) to place the generic name Roloffia Stenholt Clausen, 1966, on the Official
Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology (a junior
objective synonym of Callopanchax Myers, 1933).
Literature Cited
Boulenger, G. A. 1915. Catalogue of the fresh-water fishes of Africa in the British
Museum (Natural History). Vol. 3. London : xii + 526 pp.
1916. Idem. Vol. 4. London : xxvii + 392 pp.
LONNBERG, E. 1895. Notes on fishes collected in the Cameroons. Oefv. Kongl.
Sv. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 52 : 191-193
Myers, G. S. 1924. A new poeciliid fish from the Congo, with remarks on funduline
genera. Amer. Mas. Novit. 116 : 1-1 1
1933. The genera of Indo-Malayan and African cyprinodont fishes related to
Panchax and Nothobranchius. Copeia, 1933 (4) : 180-185
Stenholt Clausen, H. 1966. Definition of a new cyprinodont genus and descrip-
tion of a "new" but well-known West African cyprinodont, with a clarification
of the terms "sjostedti", Aphyosemion sjostedti (Lonnberg), and Aphyosemion
caeruleum (Boulenger). Rev. Zool. Bot. Afric. 73 (1-2) : 331-341
1967. Tropical Old World cyprinodonts; reflections on the taxonomy of
tropical Old World cyprinodonts, with remarks on their biology and distri-
bution. Kobenhavn (Akademisk Forlag) : 64 pp.