Chiropsoides Southcott, 1956

Gershwin, Lisa-Ann, 2006, Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new genera and two new species, Zootaxa 1231 (1), pp. 1-42 : 17-18

Genus Chiropsoides Southcott, 1956

Drepanochirus Krumbach, 1925: 575 (preoccupied for Coleoptera ). –— Dawydoff, 1936: 471. Chiropsoides Southcott, 1956: 276–277 . — Gershwin, 2005: 104, and throughout.

Type species Chiropsalmus buitendijki Horst, 1907 .

Diagnosis Chiropsalmidae with unilaterally branching pedalia.

Remarks

The family Drepanochiridae was established for Drepanochirus buitendijki ( Horst 1907) , to reflect the uniqueness of its pedalial arrangement from those of other box jellyfishes. This convention has not been adopted by other authors, and the genus name was found to be preoccupied for a coleopterid ( Southcott, 1956). The family recognition was retained by Southcott (1956) under the new name ‘Chiropsoididae’; however, this has not been recognized by subsequent authors.

The genus Chiropsoides was proposed by Southcott (1956) to replace the preoccupied genus Drepanochirus Krumbach (1925) ; both authors recognized the unique state of the unilaterally­branching pedalia, and proposed to separate the species originally described as Chiropsalmus buitendijki Horst, 1907 , from all others in the genus with bilaterallybranching pedalia. For reasons that are completely unclear, Kramp (1961) did not even acknowledge this separation, nor did Werner (1984).

The separation of a taxon with unilaterally branching pedalia from those taxa with bilaterally branching pedalia is supported by other characters, e.g., development of the gastric saccules, morphology of the pedalial canals and tentacles, and nematocysts.

As explained below, the holotype of the long­misunderstood nominal species Chiropsalmus quadrigatus Haeckel, 1880 , possesses the same pedalial arrangement as C. buitendijki , and is herein recognized as Chiropsoides quadrigatus comb. nov.