Ocypoda ippeus Olivier, 1804

Low, Martyn E. Y. & Ng, Peter K. L., 2012, The identities of Cancer arenarius Toreen, in Osbeck, 1765, Cancer arenarius Zimmermann, in Cavolini, 1792, Cancer (Mantis) arenarius Herbst, 1793, and Cancer (Gammarellus) arenarius Herbst, 1793, and other names associated with the genus Ocypode Weber, 1795 (Crustacea: Amphipoda, Decapoda,, Zootaxa 3398, pp. 40-57 : 49-50

Ocypoda ippeus Olivier, 1804 , and Cancer hippeus Olivier, 1804 : First Reviser action, identity with Ocypode cursor ( Linnaeus, 1758) , and a comment on Olivier’s Voyage dans le l’Empire Othoman, l’Égypte et la Perse ( Decapoda : Brachyura: Ocypodidae )

Guillaume Antoine Olivier’s (1801a –d; 1804a–d; 1807a–d) multi-volume Voyage dans le l’Empire Othoman, l’Égypte et la Perse “is one of the great travel narratives of early European expeditions to the Near and Middle East” ( Bauer & Adler 2003: 7). As noted by Bauer & Adler (2003: 8), part of the confusion surrounding the citation of Olivier’s (1801a –d; 1804a–d; 1807a–d) is that each of three volumes of the quarto edition (i.e. Olivier 1801a; 1804a; 1807a) were also issued simultaneously as two volumes of an octavo edition, for a total of six octavo edition volumes ( Olivier 1801b, c; 1804b, c; 1807b, c) ( Table 3). Each volume of quarto text (or two volumes of octavo text) was accompanied by a quarto livraison of plates ( Olivier 1801d; 1804d; 1807d) ( Table 3). It is not known if each quarto and octavo edition of text, and the accompanying quarto livraison of plates were issued simultaneously but “no evidence to suggest that one version preceded the other” has been found ( Bauer & Adler 2003: 10). Bauer & Adler’s (2003: 10) “advise[d] future workers to specify which edition is being cited when reference is made to volume and page numbers” and we cite the relevant pages and plates for both editions of Olivier (1804a –d) in our discussion that follows.

Olivier’s (1804a –d) work is important to carcinology because he described Cancer potamios (now Potamon potamios , see Brandis et al. 2000: 9; Ng et al. 2008: 160), which was described in Olivier (1804a: 341, footnote; 1804c: 240, footnote) and figured in Olivier (1804d: iv, pl. 30, fig. 2). Olivier (1804a: 234, footnote, 235, footnote; 1804c: 51, footnote, 52, footnote) also described Ocypoda ippeus , a species commonly known in the Mediterranean area as the horse crab. The same species was figured in Olivier (1804d: pl. 30, fig. 1) but under the name Cancer hippeus (p. vi).

a Livraison; b French revolutionary calendar year; c Date before which work could not have been in existence; d Earliest date when work was work was unambiguously in existence.

Olivier (1804a: 234, footnote, 235, footnote; 1804c: 51, footnote, 52, footnote) wrote:

“ Toute la côte était couverte d’une espèce de crabe connu des Anciens, sous le nom cavalier [reference to footnote: ‘ Crabe cavalier ’ in Camus (1783: 160)]. A mesure que nous approchions de lui il conrait de côté avec la plus grande célérité, et se sauvait à la mer ou dans les trous qu’il avait creusés sur le rivage. Nous voulûmes l’atteindre à la course; nous ne pûmes y parvenir; mais il nous fut aisé de le saisir en fouillant dans le sable où il s’était tapi. Ce crabe est très-vorace: les cadavres ou charognes de toute espèce, ainsi que les substances animales que la mer rejette sur le rivage, sont dévores par lui en un instant. Ses yeux présentent une particularité fort supérieurement, et va se terminer en une houpe de poils ou pinceau assez long. Le têt est carré, convexe et chagriné en dessus; les angles latéraux antérieurs sont saillans, et la ligne qui se prolonge postérieurement, et qui divise vers le milieu, est légérement crénelée dans toute sa longueur. Les pinces ne sont pas fort grandes; elles sont chagrinées et très-anguleuses: les autres pattes sont un peu rugueuses: la pièce les termine est mince, pointue, et a quatre lignes longitudinales, sailantes. Il appartient au genre Ocypode [reference to footnote: ‘ Ocypoda ippeus , thorace quadrato, scabro, antice utrinquè angulato, oculis penicillo terminatis. Tab. 30, fig. 1. ’]. (Voyez pl. 30, fig. 1.) ”.

Olivier (1804a: 235, footnote; 1804c: 52, footnote) considered the spelling “ Ocypode ” to be the French vernacular and Latin equivalent to be “ Ocypoda ”. As with the name Cancer eques that was used by Aubert de la Chesnaye des Bois (1759: 417), the name Ocypoda ippeus as used by Olivier (1804a: 234, 235) clearly shows the Olivier’s adoption of the name and that in describing it as new, assigned it to the genus Ocypode Weber, 1795 (incorrectly spelt as “ Ocypoda ”). The issues surrounding the spelling of the genus-group name Ocypode and its authorship have been discussed by Holthuis (1962: 237) and resolved in Opinion 712 ( ICZN 1964: 338).

In the atlas of plates accompanying Olivier (1804a), the name Cancer hippeus was given in the accompanying caption to the plate ( Olivier 1804d: vi, pl. 30, fig. 1). As Olivier (1804a, c, d) are deemed to have been published simultaneously, the names Ocypoda ippeus as used in Olivier (1804a: 235, footnote; 1804c: 52, footnote) and Cancer hippeus as used in Oliver (1804d: vi) are deemed to be “alternative original spellings” (Article 19.3; ICZN 1999: 21). As discussed above, the name for the “horse crab” has its origins in the Greek “Iπποὺς”, which is correctly transliterated into Latin as “ippeus”. We therefore take First Reviser action (Article 24.2, ICZN 1999: 30) and select the name Ocypoda ippeus as used in Olivier (1804a: 235, footnote; 1804c: 52, footnote) to be the correct spelling, and the name Cancer hippeus in Olivier (1804d: vi) to be a lapsus. As specified in Article 19.3 ( ICZN 1999: 21) when multiple original spellings are used in a publication, “[a]lternative original spellings that are not adopted by the First Reviser [Article 24.2] are deemed to be incorrect original spellings and are not separately available”. The correct spelling of the name for the “horse crab” described by Olivier (1804a, c, d) should therefore now be Ocypoda ippeus .

Olivier’s (1804a: 235, footnote; 1804c: 52, footnote) statement of “oculis penicillo terminatis” and his figure (1804d: pl. 30, fig. 1) clearly diagnose Ocypode cursor ( Linnaeus, 1758) , in which the brush-like stylophthalmous processes beyond the cornea are a diagnostic character (see Branch et al. 2007: 96). It should be noted that this identity had already been recognised by Latreille (in Biot et al. 1818: 197). Ocypoda ippeus Olivier, 1804 , is herein considered a junior subjective synonym of Ocypode cursor ( Linnaeus, 1758) .