Chaetoderma montereyense, Heath, 1911

Miranda, Marcel S., Strong, Ellen E. & Passos, Flávio D., 2020, Type specimens of Caudofoveata (Mollusca, Aplacophora) in the molluscan collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Zootaxa 4895 (4), pp. 581-593 : 584

montereyense Heath, 1911 ; Chaetoderma

Chaetoderma montereyensis Heath, 1911: 43 , 61–62; pl. 4, figs. 4, 8, 14, 17; pl. 27, figs. 1, 2, 4–11; pl. 37, figs. 2, 3.

Current taxonomic status. Synonym of Chaetoderma argenteum Heath, 1911 .

Type locality. Monterey Bay , California, USA, 39–356 fathoms (70–640 m) .

Type material. Paralectotypes MCZ 302676 (1 spm + 3 slides) , MCZ 302677 (1 spm), 302680 (1 spm); doubtful paralectotypes MCZ 302678 (1 spm + 4 slides) , MCZ 302679 (7 spms), and 303626 (1 spm) .

Remarks. Heath (1911) described C. montereyense based on examination of 155 specimens from six ‘Albatross’ stations, without designating a type. One individual from an undetermined station was serially sectioned and these slides are currently held in the California Academy of Sciences (CAS 21397); it was referred to as a syntype by Stasek (1966) (and listed by him with former lot number ‘CAS 194’), then as a ‘holotype’ by Scheltema et al. (1991) (this does not qualify as a lectotype designation under ICZN Art. 74.5, because Scheltema did not explicitly indicate that she was selecting that specimen to serve as the name–bearing type), and later designated as a lectotype by Salvini-Plawen (1993). Three of the ‘Albatross’ samples (from stations 4485, 4508 and 4525) appear to be lost, they were listed by Scheltema et al. (1991, tab. 1) as having no ‘extant specimens’, do not appear in the database of the MCZ and were not located in the collection itself. The three remaining samples examined by Heath (1911) from stations 4524, 4523 and 4522, correspond to lots MCZ 302676, 302677 and 302680, respectively, and are also paralectotypes, not paratypes as stated by Scheltema et al. (1991) and Scheltema (1998).

Apart from the six samples originally listed by Heath (1911), two additional samples from ‘Albatross’ stations 4510 and 4526 were also examined by Scheltema et al. (1991). The latter corresponds to MCZ 302679, and the former was split in two lots: MCZ 302678 and MCZ 303626. As pointed out by Scheltema et al. (1991), although Heath (1911) did not list the samples from these stations, he presumably examined them; so, these three MCZ lots can be considered as possible paralectotypes.

Chaetoderma montereyense is currently accepted as a synonym of C. argenteum (MolluscaBase 2020a) , as suggested by Scheltema et al. (1991). However, Salvini-Plawen (1993) argued that these species are distinct and both should be considered valid. Scheltema (1998) returned to this controversy, rejecting the arguments of Salvini- Plawen (1993).