Neoleptastacus angolensis ( Bodiou & Colomines, 1986 ) Sak & Karaytuğ & Huys, 2024

Sak, Serdar, Karaytuğ, Süphan & Huys, Rony, 2024, Review of Neoleptastacus Nicholls, 1945 (Harpacticoida, Arenopontiidae), including an updated key to species and proposal of Phreatipontia gen. nov., Zootaxa 5525 (1), pp. 1-66 : 28

Neoleptastacus angolensis ( Bodiou & Colomines, 1986) comb. nov.

Arenopontia (Neoleptastacus) africana Chappuis & Rouch, 1961 f . angolensis Kunz, 1971

Arenopontia (Neoleptastacus) angolensis Kunz, 1971 —unavailable name attributed to Kunz (1971) by Bodiou & Colomines (1986: 60) [ICZN Art. 45.5.1]

Neoleptastacus angolensis ( Kunz, 1971) Sak et al. (2008: 412) —unavailable name

Original description. Kunz (1971): 356–358; Abb. 34–42 (♀ only).

Type locality. Angola, Luanda Province, south of Fastaleza (near Luanda); coarse sandy beach, 8 m from lowtide mark, salinity 35 ‰.

Body length. 290–350 μm (♀).

Remarks. Kunz (1971) distinguished two varieties of Arenopontia (Neoleptastacus) africana Chappuis & Rouch, 1961 ( africana and angolensis n. f.). Bodiou & Colomines (1986), taking a rather pragmatic approach, upgraded A. (N.) africana f. angolensis to species level as A. (N.) angolensis and attributed authorship to Kunz (1971). However, a form, if published after 1960, is deemed to denote infrasubspecific rank and is therefore not regulated by the Code (ICZN Arts 15.2 & 45.6.3). According to ICZN Art. 45.5.1, names of infrasubspecific rank cannot be made available from their original publication by subsequent elevation in rank except by a ruling of the Commission. When a subsequent author applies the same word to a species or subspecies in a manner that makes it an available name, even if authorship of the name is attributed to the author of its publication as an infrasubspecific name, that subsequent author thereby establishes a new name with its own authorship and date. Although Bodiou & Colomines (1986) did not explicitly provide a diagnosis of A. (N.) angolensis , they do include the species in an identification key. The characters used in the key, leading to the couplet where A. (N.) angolensis keys out, collectively serve as a definition of the taxon which satisfies the provisions of ICZN Art. 13.1.1 and makes the name available. Hence the binomen A. (N.) angolensis becomes available from Bodiou & Colomines (1986) and is here treated as a new combination, Neoleptastacus angolensis ( Bodiou & Colomines, 1986) comb. nov. Sak et al. (2008) had previously incorrectly attributed this combination to Kunz (1971).

According to Kunz’s (1971) setal formula, P2 exp-2 possesses an inner seta on P2 exp-2 which is a unique character in the family (except for the inadequately described Arenopontia pontica ). However, since Kunz did not illustrate the P2 nor mentioned this character in the text or the table comparing A. africana f. africana and f. angolensis (he does state that the P2 is as in the nominate form apart from the ornamentation of the inner seta on enp-2), we strongly suspect that his report is based on a slip of the pen in his table rather than on an observational error. As pointed out by Mielke (1982a: 45) Kunz’s (1971) setal formula for P3 exp-3 should read 021 (not 010). The species is known from the type locality only and its male remains unknown.