Pessoaiella Guimarães, 1940

Huber, Roger; Kobi, Hans, 2006, Guttannen BE, Westsüdwestansicht des Westhanges mit der Kahlfläche im Griwald, Zootaxa 1260, pp. 67-68 : 67

Pessoaiella Guimarães, 1940

Wilsoniella Eichler, 1940 (May) : 99 [type­species: Wilsoniella absita (Kellogg) by original designation], nec Wilsoniella Khalfin, 1939: 83 (type­species: Wilsoniella prima Khalfin , by original designation).

Pessoaiella Guimarães, 1940 (June) : 300, figs 17­24 [type­species: Esthiopterum absitus (Kellog) [sic] by original designation].

Kellogg (1910) described Lipeurus absitus ( Phthiraptera : Philopteridae ), a species of chewing louse found on the Hoazin Opisthocomus hoazin (Statius Muller) ( Aves : Opisthocomidae ), a bird found in the northern South America. Harrison (1916) erected the genus Esthiopterum for several species of Lipeurus , including L. absitus . In 1940, two authors independently recognized that Esthiopterum absitum (Kellogg) should be placed in a genus of its own. Eichler (1940) erected the genus Wilsoniella in 15 May 1940, and Guimarães erected the genus Pessoaiella in a paper published 36 days later, on 20 June 1940. Thus, Wilsoniella Eichler had precedence over Pessoaiella Guimarães. This latter name, as a consequence, has been treated as a junior synonym of Wilsoniella Eichler (see Hopkins and Clay 1952 and Price et al. 2003).

Wilsoniella Eichler , however, is preoccupied by Wilsoniella Khalfin , a genus within the Rhynchonellida (Brachiopoda) . The order Rhynchonellida Kuhn comprises 39 families, most of which became extinct at the end of the Permian, with only four families reaching the Holocene ( Harper et al. 1993). Two species are recognized in Wilsoniella Khalfin ( W. prima and W. tchernyshevae ), both extinct forms, the fossils of which are dated from the Devonian and were found in the former USSR.

Article 23.3.5 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states that “The Principle of Priority requires that if a name in use for a taxon is found to be unavailable or invalid it must be replaced by the next oldest available name from among its synonyms...” ( International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999). As Pessoaiella Guimarães is a junior synonym of Wilsoniella Eichler , it is here instated as the valid name of this philopterid genus.