Perca vaila Osbeck, 1770

Parenti, Paolo, Kullander, Sven & Randall, John E., 2013, Taxonomic And Nomenclatural Status Of Perca Argentea Linnaeus, 1758, Perca Vaila Osbeck, 1770, And Perca Indica Gronow In Gray, 1854 (Osteichthyes, Terapontidae And Moronidae), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 61 (1), pp. 303-310 : 306

Perca vaila Osbeck

The name Perca vaila Osbeck (1770) is regarded as invalid in the Catalog of Fishes ( Eschmeyer, 1998: 1735) on the basis of earlier synonymisations ( Walbaum, 1792; Bloch & Schneider, 1801; Bloch, 1792) as Dicentrarchus labrax , D. punctata , and Sciaena diacantha , respectively. The name is available from Osbeck (1770: 102), which contains descriptions of 12 new species of fishes, five of which were assigned to Perca ( P. aculeata , P. dubia , P. obscura , P. ringens , and P. vaila ). Perca vaila was described by a relatively large number of characters (see below) that lead us to conclude that it represents an older name for the species presently known as Dicentrarchus punctatus ( Bloch, 1792) . The original description states that it is based on species 6 of genus 127 listed in the ninth edition of Systema Naturae ( Linnaeus, 1756) [Osbeck misprinted the generic number; in the ninth edition Perca is number 122, whereas it is 127 is in the sixth edition (1748)]. The name vaila is taken from Spanish and corresponds to the fish that Swedish sailors call Laxoren, as recognised by Artedi (1738: 41, species 7, Perca radiis dorsalis secundae tredecim…Labrax Graecorum). Osbeck’s description, in Latin, may be translated as follows: “Dorsal fins: the first with 9 spines, the second with 14 soft rays. Pectorals 15. Ventrals 6. Anal 14, of which the first 3 are spinous. Caudal fin forked with 20 rays. Body compressed (the general aspect of a salmon) with many small dots on the upper half and a little below the lateral line. Back dark. Belly white. One foot in length, but often less. Head small. Gape large, roundish. Tongue dark white, rough. Iris white. Three opercular leaflets at both sides, the middle one [read preopercle] finely serrate. Ventral and pectoral fins white, the other fins dark. To these some Oniscus specimens adhere.”

To our knowledge, only three subsequent books listed the name Perca vaila . In his Genera Piscium, Walbaum (1792: 329) placed P. vaila in the synonymy of P. labrax , with a complete description, together with the correct reference. Bloch & Schneider (1801: 85) included it in the synonymy of Sciaena punctata . Bloch (1792) regarded it as a variety of Perca diacantha (= Sciaena diacantha Bloch, 1792: 58 ) and listed P. labrax as a distinct species. The status of S. punctata , S. diacantha , and P. labrax was extensively reviewed by Cuvier & Valenciennes (1828: 56), who regarded all three names as synonyms of Labrax lupus. He was followed in this decision by Günther (1859: 63). The generic name Labrax is preoccupied by Labrax Pallas, 1810 in the Hexagrammidae , and Dicentrarchus Gill, 1860 is therefore the valid generic name (Daget & Smith, 1986: 299). According to Tortonese (1973: 357), Dicentrarchus contains two species, D. labrax ( Linnaeus, 1758) and D. punctatus ( Bloch, 1792) , distinguished by the form of vomerine tooth path (crescent-shaped vs anchor-shaped, respectively), modal number of scales in the lateral line (70 vs 60, respectively), number of soft rays in the second dorsal fin (12–13 vs 11–14) and colour pattern (adults never spotted, young with some dark spots vs adults with many small black spots on back and sides). Both species inhabit the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Based on the original description, Perca vaila Osbeck clearly represents an older name for Dicentrarchus punctatus . However, to our knowledge Perca vaila has not been used as a valid name since 1899 (Article 23.9.1.1), and D. punctatus has been used as valid in 25 or more publications by more 10 authors in the last 50 years (Article 23.9.1.2). Article 23.9.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature thus requires us to declare Perca vaila as a nomen oblitum, and Sciaena punctata as a nomen conservandum for the same species. The relevant conditions are met by the following 25 publications that cited the name D. punctatus: Tortonese (1973) ; Ben-Tuvia (1978); Drake et al. (1982); Oliver & Paperna (1984); Daget & Smith (1986); Bauchot (1987); Smith (1990); Drake & Arias (1991); Economidis (1991); Sola et al. (1993); Goren & Dor (1994); Poll & Gosse (1994); Pérez-Bote et al., (1995); Coad (1996); Allegrucci et al. (1997, 1999); Arruda (1997); Gonçalves et al. (1997); Kottelat (1997); Reshetnikov et al. (1997); Azeroual et al. (2000); Bilecenoglu et al. (2002); Bonhomme et al. (2002); El-Mor et al. (2002); Roe et al. (2002).