Galathea elegans Adams, 1847

Low, Martyn E. Y., Ng, Peter K. L. & Clark, Paul F., 2020, Additional notes on the publication of the Narrative, Zoology and Notes from a Journal of Research into the Natural History of the Voyage of H. M. S. Samarang and its consequences for the nomenclature of decapod crustaceans and other taxa, Zootaxa 4809 (2), pp. 271-305 : 292

Galathea elegans Adams, 1847 (before 31 December), not Adams & White, 1849 (April) or Adams, in Adams & White, 1849 (April): now Allogalathea elegans ( Decapoda : Anomura: Galatheidae )

Adams (1847c: 245) wrote: “In the Straits of Sunda, we obtained by the dredge several fine specimens of the beautiful Galathea elegans of White. It is very active in its movements, darting backwards by sudden powerful jerks, snapping it chelae quickly together, and producing a clicking noise. When swimming, the post-abdomen is first bent under the body, and again violently forced backwards. In the recent state, the body of the common variety is yellow, with three dark-red bands. The post-abdomen is pink. The chelae are bright pink, and finely marked with two series of dark-brown irregular spots. The legs are pink, with a dark stripe on the femur, and a brown transverse band on the penultimate joint. The under surface is flesh colour with two longitudinal stripes on the breast; frontal spine orange”. This description makes the name Galathea elegans available from Adams (1847c). The description agrees well with figures of the species now known as Allogalathea elegans (see Baba et al. 2008: 53, fig. 2B, C; Cabezas et al. 2011: 256, figs. 2, 3, 6B).

The authorship of Allogalathea elegans has been conventionally attributed to Adams & White (1849: pl. 12, fig. 7, caption; e.g., Baba et al. 2008: 53). In the introduction to the work of Adams & White (1848, 1849), Adams (in Adams & White 1849: ii) repeated the description of Adams (1847c: 245) quoted above. Both indications of the new species Galathea elegans are valid (Article 12 of the Code, ICZN 1999: 16, 17) and the two names should be regarded as published simultaneously in 1849. The description in Adams (1847c: 245), however, has priority over both indications (i.e., Adams & White 1849: pl. 12, fig. 7, caption; Adams in Adams & White 1849: ii). The authorship of Allogalathea elegans should therefore be attributed to Adams (1847c).