Eiconaxius albatrossae Kensley, 1996

Poore, Gary C. B., 2017, Synonymy and problematic species of Eiconaxius Spence Bate, 1888, with descriptions of new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea: Axiidae), Zootaxa 4231 (3), pp. 364-376 : 366

Eiconaxius albatrossae Kensley, 1996

Axius acutifrons .— Faxon 1895: 103 –104, pl. 28 fig. 2.

Eiconaxius albatrossae Kensley, 1996: 475 –478, figs 4, 5.— Komai & Tsuchida 2012: 28, 38. Eiconaxius faxoni Sakai, 2011: 279 .

Remarks. Eiconaxius faxoni Sakai, 2011 was based on 12 ‘types’ from two Albatross stations off the Pacific coast of Panama, identified as Axius acutifrons (= E. acutifrons ) by Faxon (1895). Komai & Tsuchida (2012) believed that the name E. faxoni is unavailable because it lacks explicit type designation (ICZN Articles 16.4 and 72.3) but this is not so—Sakai did specify the same 12 individuals in the MCZ designated as holotype and paratypes of E. albatrossae Kensley, 1996 as ‘Types’, effectively syntypes (ICZN Article 72.3.1). The absence of a diagnosis is overcome by reliance on Faxon’s (1895) description (ICZN Article 13.1.2). The synonymy of E. faxoni with E. albatrossae , recognised by Komai & Tsuchida (2012) is ambiguous without a single type. It is resolved here by designation of the male from Albatross stn 3359 (MCZ 4568), the holotype of E. albatrossae , as lectotype of Eiconaxius faxoni Sakai, 2011 , thereby making the species an objective synonym of E. albatrossae Kensley, 1996 .

Sakai (2011) listed Wicksten’s (1982) Californian record of Axius acutifrons in the synonymy of E. faxoni but her material belongs to E. baja Kensley, 1996 ( Komai & Tsuchida 2012) .