Jassa variegatus ( Leach, 1814 )

Conlan, Kathleen E., Desiderato, Andrea & Beermann, Jan, 2021, Jassa (Crustacea: Amphipoda): a new morphological and molecular assessment of the genus, Zootaxa 4939 (1), pp. 1-191 : 161

Jassa variegatus ( Leach, 1814)

Stebbing (1899a) compared Leach’s (1814) descriptions of the genera Podocerus and Jassa , collected from Devon, England, demonstrating that the two genera were valid, while previously, it had been thought that the two were the same. This study initiated the transfer of species to each genus, with Podocerus variegatus Leach, 1814 being the type for the genus Podocerus . Conlan (1990) examined the syntypes NHM 295b and 285d of Podocerus variegatus and found them to be indeed in the genus Podocerus . Jassa pulchella Leach, 1814 erected by Leach as the type for the genus Jassa (NHM 296a–g; lectotype: 296e), is now J. falcata ( Montagu, 1808) (holotype: NHM 603a). Asecond species of Jassa described by Leach (1814), J. pelagica , was transferred by Stebbing (1899a) to Parajassa .

Stebbing (1899a) documented the taxonomic confusion surrounding these three species over the 85 years between Leach’s publication and his own. Conlan (1990) mis-interpreted Stebbing (1899a) in thinking that there werestill specimens of Leach’s type series for P. variegatus that contained Jassa . However, this appears to be not the case, since P. variegatus and P. pelagica had their types validated by Conlan (1990) along with the type species for the genera Podocerus and Jassa . Therefore, the name J. variegatus is invalid (it is actually P. variegatus ).