Thia Leach, 1816

Ng, P. K. L. & Low, M. E. Y., 2010, On the generic nomenclature of nine brachyuran names, with four replacement names and two nomina protecta (Crustacea: Decapoda), Zootaxa 2489 (1), pp. 34-46 : 39

Thia Leach, 1816 , ( Thiidae Dana, 1852 ), versus Thia Oken, 1815 (Annelida: Polychaeta: Amphinomidae ), and precedence over Thia Newman, 1840 ( Insecta: Coleoptera : Cerambycidae ), and Thia Edwards, 1888 ( Insecta: Lepidoptera : Glyphipterigidae )

The name Thia was applied to four different taxa between 1815 and 1888. Lorenz Oken (1815: p. XIII of the “Register”, 375) first used Thia for a genus of Polychaeta, with Amphinome caruncalata ( Pallas, 1766) listed under it. William Elford Leach (1816: 312) used the name Thia for a genus of Brachyura he described in the same publication, Thia polita , now assigned to its own family, Thiidae Dana, 1852 . Edward Newman (1840: 18) used Thia , for a species of Coleoptera , with a new species, Thia pusilla , as type species. Henry Edwards (1888: 181) used Thia for a genus of Lepidoptera , with a new species Thia extranea , as type species. The names Thia Newman, 1840 , and Thia Edwards, 1888 , are nomenclaturally irrelevant as they are clearly junior synonyms of Oken’s (1815) and Leach’s (1816) names, and as such, are not discussed further.

The Thia of Leach (1816) is usually cited as published in 1815. However, Harrison & Smith (2008: 556) determined that Volume 11 (“XI”) of the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (imprint “1815”) was actually published on 24 January 1816. Thia Leach, 1816 , would thus appear to be a junior homonym of Thia Oken, 1815 ; causing other problems as Thia Leach, 1816 , is also the basis for a valid family, Thiidae , established by Dana (1852: 119).

Fortunately, a replacement name for Thia Leach, 1816 , is unnecessary. Oken’s Lehrbuch der Zoologie, which makes up the third volume (“Dritter Theil – Zoologie”) of Okens Lehrbuch der Naturgeschicte ( Oken, 1815 –1816), was rejected for “nomenclatorial purposes” by the ICZN (1956: 30) due to the inconsistent application of binomial Latin names. Although some of the names in this volume of the Lehrbuch der Naturgeschicte have been made available by later rulings of the ICZN (e.g., Opinion 1368 recognizing the names Pan and Panthera ; ICZN 1985), no such application has been made to recognise Thia Oken, 1815 .