Melanopsis confusa Strausz, 1941

Neubauer, Thomas A., Harzhauser, Mathias, Georgopoulou, Elisavet, Mandic, Oleg & Kroh, Andreas, 2014, Replacement names and nomenclatural comments for problematic species-group names in Europe's Neogene freshwater Gastropoda, Zootaxa 3785 (3), pp. 453-468 : 461

Melanopsis confusa Strausz, 1941

Melanopsis costata — Fuchs 1870a: 353 [non Olivier, 1804].

M. [elanopsis] Fuchsi Brusina 1884: 168 [non Handmann, 1882].

Melanopsis Fuchsi — Brusina 1896: 121 [non Handmann, 1882].

Melanopsis Fuchsi — Brusina 1902: VII, pl. 6, figs 38–40 [non Handmann, 1882].

M. [elanopsis] hungarica Pallary 1916: 83 [non Kormos, 1904].

Melanopsis hungarica —Wenz 1929: 2744 [non Kormos, 1904] [cum syn.].

M.[elanopsis] confusa Strausz 1941: 143 , 168 [replacement name for Melanopsis hungarica Pallary non Kormos].

Melanopsis (Canthidomus) jekeliusi Gillet & Marinescu 1971: 55 , pl. 22, figs 20–30 [unnecessary replacement name].

Type locality. Rădmăneşti, Timiş, Romania.

Age. Upper Pannonian (= Upper Tortonian).

Holotype. No holotype was designated; syntypes are stored in the Natural History Museum Vienna.

Discussion. The name Melanopsis costata was introduced by Olivier (1804) for an extant taxon and is still valid and accepted. Fuchs (1870a) misidentified a different species from the Late Miocene locality Rădmăneşti in Romania, classifying it as " Melanopsis costata Fér. ". To rectify this error, Brusina (1884, p. 168) introduced a new name, i.e. Melanopsis fuchsi Brusina, 1884 . Since he explicitly referred to the description of Fuchs (1870a), the species M. fuchsi was correctly indicated and is not a nomen nudum as stated by Wenz (1929, p. 2745). However, this name again is a primary homonym of M. fuchsi Handmann, 1882 . Pallary (1916, p. 83) summarized the nomenclatural problems and introduced Melanopsis hungarica Pallary, 1916 as new name for M. fuchsi Brusina, 1884 non Handmann, 1882. This is the third homonym for the very same species, as the name is preoccupied by M. hungarica Kormos, 1904 . Strausz (1941) introduced the only valid name, Melanopsis confusa , as replacement name for M. hungarica Pallary, 1916 non Kormos, 1904 (see also Strausz 1942, p. 91).

Seemingly unaware of this publication, Gillet & Marinescu (1971, p. 55) repeated the very same nomenclatural act and introduced Melanopsis (Canthidomus) jekeliusi as new name for M. hungarica Pallary, 1916 non Kormos, 1904. Following ICZN (1999, Article 61.3.4) this name is an objective synonym.

The records of " Melanopsis costata Férussac, 1823 " in Neumayr (1869, p. 372), Neumayr & Paul (1875, p. 41) and many others (see Wenz 1929, p. 2648) for Slavonian (E Croatian) species trace back to an error made by Férussac. In his monograph on the recent and fossil melanopsids, he wrote " Mel. costata , nobis" ( Férussac 1823, p. 156) despite citing the first description of Olivier (1804) in the synonymy list. Maybe he wanted to denote that he places this species within Melanopsis , while Olivier described it as " Melania costata ". However, the records by Neumayr and others neither refer to Melanopsis costata ( Olivier, 1804) nor to Melanopsis confusa Strausz, 1941 . These misidentifications were already detected and clarified by Pallary (1916, p. 80), who proposed the new name Melanopsis cosmanni [sic] for these misidentified specimens (ranked as subspecies of Melanopsis abbreviata Brusina, 1874 in Wenz 1929, p. 2648). Since the name was clearly erected in honor of Maurice Cossmann, the correct name has to be " cossmanni " (justified emendation following ICZN Article 33.2).