Diplocyathus clarae, Fraser, 1911

Calder, Dale R. & Choong, Henry H. C., 2018, Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions, Zootaxa 4487 (1), pp. 1-83 : 43

Diphasia clarae Fraser, 1911

Hydrallmania distans Nutting, 1899: 746 , pl. 63, figs. 3Α–D.

Diphasia clarae Fraser, 1911: 64 , pl. 5, fig. 1.

Syntype. USNM 70860 : USA, Washington, San Juan Islands , one colony on Lafoea sp., coll. T. Kincaid; ethanol.

Lectotype, by present designation. USNM 70860 : USA, Washington, San Juan Islands , one colony, ca. 8 mm high, on Lafoea sp., in fairly good condition, without gonophores, coll. T. Kincaid; ethanol.

Type locality. USA, Washington: San Juan Archipelago ( Fraser 1911).

Current status. Invalid.

Remarks. Diphasia clarae was originally described by Fraser (1911) from specimens collected in both Washington state, USA (San Juan Archipelago) and British Columbia, Canada (Queen Charlotte Islands, now called Haida Gwaii). No name-bearing types were designated by him for the species. A hydroid colony at the NMNH (USNM 70860) from one of the two original type localities, and in a collection (by Trevor Kincaid) that Fraser examined during his study ( Fraser 1911: 4), would have been part of the type series of D. clarae . Although no other specimens from the type series are known to exist, we designate it as the lectotype rather than the holotype by monotypy (ICZN Recommendation 73F). A single sample of specimens identified as D. clarae exists in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00544-001: Horswell Channel, 17 October 1912, 15- 18 m) (Arai 1977), but it was collected subsequent to the original description of the species and does not constitute type material. Our lectotype designation restricts the type locality of D. clarae to the San Juan Archipelago, Washington, USA.

Subsequently assigned to the synonymy of Hydrallmania distans Nutting, 1899 by Fraser (1914a: 108, 185), the binomen Diphasia clarae was abandoned in later comprehensive works on hydroids by him ( Fraser 1937a, 1947a).

The figures and captions of plates 5 and 6 in Fraser’s (1911) paper, in which Diphasia clarae was described, were reversed. The figure of the species is on plate 5 and not plate 6, as indicated in the text.