Melanopsis pseudocostata Oppenheim, 1890

Neubauer, Thomas A., 2016, A nomenclator of extant and fossil taxa of the Melanopsidae (Gastropoda, Cerithioidea), ZooKeys 602, pp. 1-358 : 225-226

† Melanopsis pseudocostata Oppenheim, 1890

Original source.

Oppenheim 1890b: 591.

Type horizon.

Cernikian, Pliocene.

Type locality.

"Cigelnik; [...] Graben zwischen Čapla und der Podwiner Kirche; [...] Thal hinter der Podwiner Kirche; [...] Sibin; [...] Repušnica” ( Neumayr and Paul 1875: 41) [Ciglenik; trench between Čaplja and the church of Podvinje; valley behind the church of Podvinje; Sibinj; Repušnica], Croatia.

Remarks.

Different concepts of this species were applied in the literature and created considerable confusion. Oppenheim introduced the name clearly for the misidentified record of Melania costata sensu Neumayr in Neumayr & Paul, 1875 (p. 41), non Olivier, 1804 from Slavonia, despite referring about Greek material. Later, however, he considered the name as rectification also for Melania costata sensu Fuchs, 1877 from Megara and sensu Tournouër, 1876 from Kos Island ( Oppenheim 1891: 465). This fact remained unnoticed by Wenz (1929: 2808), who treated Melanopsis pseudocostata as replacement name of the latter two records (Fuchs, Tournouër) but not of Neumayr and Paul’s species.

In addition, there are three other new names proposed for misidentified Melania costata from the Pliocene of Slavonia, i.e., Melanopsis croatica Brusina, 1884 (for Melania costata sensu Neumayr, 1869), Melanopsis cosmanni Pallary, 1916 [= cossmanni , just. emend.] (for Melania costata sensu Cossmann, 1909) and Melanopsis permutabilis Pallary, 1920 (for Melania costata sensu Brusina, 1874). Note that Wenz (1929) erroneously considered Melanopsis cosmanni a replacement name of Neumayr’s (1869) record.

Wenz obviously considered all erroneous " Melania costata " records from Slavonia to represent the same species and synonymized them with Melanopsis cosmanni , but was unaware that Melanopsis croatica Brusina, 1884 is the first available name for them. Although the four names ( croatica , pseudocostata , cosmanni , permutabilis ) likely refer to the very same species they are based on different specimens and thus no objective synonyms.

For the record by Tournouër (1876) from Kos Island, Pallary (1929: 119) introduced Melanopsis sculptilis as replacement name. The misidentified Melanopsis costata sensu Fuchs, 1877 from Megara, however, is still nameless.

The name " pseudodecorata " mentioned by Cossmann (1909: 178) is an incorrect subsequent spelling.