Gjellerupia minima Roewer, 1915

Sharma, Prashant P., Kury, Adriano B. & Giribet, Gonzalo, 2011, Zalmoxidae (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores) of the Paleotropics: a catalogue of Southeast Asian and Indo-Pacific species, Zootaxa 2972, pp. 37-58 : 39

Gjellerupia minima Roewer, 1915 , restored combination

Gjellerupia minima Roewer, 1915 , p. 20–21, fig. 10; 1923, p. 107–109, fig. 108–109; 1949a, p. 29. Gjellerupiola minima: Roewer, 1949a , p. 29, fig. 43.

Zalmoxis minima: Goodnight & Goodnight, 1957 , p. 81–83 [junior secondary homonym of Zalmoxis minimus Roewer, 1912 ].

Record. *Wilhelmshafen [Madang, Papua New Guinea].

Remarks. This species was originally described from a single male holotype specimen by Roewer (1915) as having a tarsal formula of 4: 7:?: 7. Subsequently, Roewer made this species the type of the new genus Gjellerupiola ( Roewer, 1949a) , and changed the counts of the tarsalia to 3:>6: 5: 6. It is the interpretation of the authors that Roewer attempted to correct an error in the original description ( Roewer, 1915; reiterated by Roewer, 1923), but did so by erecting a new monotypic genus without justification. Goodnight & Goodnight (1957) later synonymized Gjellerupiola with Zalmoxis , but neglected to designate a new specific epithet (the validity of the earlier described Zalmoxis minima Roewer, 1912 resulted in a preoccupation), resulting in two species with the name " Zalmoxis minima ." We observe that this species and Gjellerupia neoguinensis Roewer, 1913 have similar habitus, armature and shape, suggesting that they are congenerics. Consequently, we correct the homonymy by restoring Gjellerupia minima Roewer, 1915 .