Gecarcinus lateralis (Gecarcinidae)

Low, Martyn E. Y., Ng, Peter K. L. & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2013, Names and publication dates of the Brachyura in F. É. Guérin (Guérin-Méneville) (Crustacea: Decapoda), Zootaxa 3736 (2), pp. 101-127 : 103-104

Authorship of Gecarcinus lateralis (Gecarcinidae)

Fréminville (1835: 224) described Ocypoda lateralis from the mountains in La Désirade, Guadeloupe, Marie- Galante, and Martinique in the West Indies. This species, now Gecarcinus lateralis , is a valid taxon (see Martinez & Bliss 1989: 2, 3; Ng et al. 2008: 215). The editor (H. Milne Edwards) of the volume wrote that “ Ocypoda lateralis est une espèce de Gécarcin bien distincte et dont j’ai donné une figure dans mon histoire naturelle des Crustacés. M. Guérin l’a également figurée dans son Iconographie du règne animal” [his Ocypoda lateralis is a very distinctive species of gecarcinid and of which I have given a figure in my natural history of crustaceans [i.e. H. Milne Edwards 1840: pl. 18, figs. 1–6]. M. Guérin has also figured it in his Iconographie du règne animal].

Guérin (1832, in Guérin-Méneville 1829–1837: pl. 5, fig. 1, caption to figure), however, had already used the name “ Gecarcinus lateralis Freminv. ” and illustrated what is clearly this species. The authorship of Gecarcinus lateralis must thus be attributed to Guérin and the date of his Iconographie in 1832 (Guérin-Méneville 1829– 1837).