Abstract
WITH reference to the names Antedon and Comatula, will you allow me to say that the former has been applied to a genus of lamellicorn beetles since the year 1832? Comatula has been in use from nearly the beginning of the present century, and it is not only found in the works of Fleming, Forbes, Sars, Owen, G. H. Lewes (“Seaside Studies”), Carus, and others, but it must be a familiar word to many who have seen the splendid tank of those crinoids in the Naples aquarium. And now that we are bidden to change it “on the grounds of priority,” may we inquire if the “grounds” of long custom (in this case more than sixty years) are to be invariably set aside? Dr. J. E. Gray, who had a sort of mania for change, tried in 1848 to restore de Freminville's name of Antedon. He went a step further, and, after Pennant, adopted Linck's specific name (so far as Linck had any idea of specific names, for they were unknown in his day) of “decameros,” so that the advocates of absolute priority will have to take “Antedon decamcros” as the designation of Comatula rosacea.
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PASCOE, F. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 15, 198 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/015198a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/015198a0
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