|
This common European species was widely known under the name Sagartia elegans. The generic nomen Sagartia was, however, incorrectly applied for this and all other Sagartia species. The correct generic nomen for it (as well as for several other species formerly known as Sagartia) is Cylista.
The whole story that lead to serious changes in naming of this group of sea anemones is rather complex and based on nomenclatural issues. It was discussed in details in our paper published in 2020 in Bionomina (International Journal of Biological Nomenclature and Terminology) (please ask if you need pdf, journal rules do not allow us to publish full text here).
In brief: in 2016 D. Fautin published a catalog of families, genera and species of Actiniaria where she discovered a fact that neither Sagartia miniata nor Sagartia elegans can be the type species of Sagartia (these species were treated as type species of Sagartia by previous authors). This statement is correct. Then, however, she completely misinterpret relevant articles of the International Code of Zoologigal Nomenclature and come to incorrect conclusion that the family Sagartiidae is invalid and rather than try to solve this nomenclatural problem she just listed all genera it contains as incertae sedis (the term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined). In our paper mentioned above we show that the family name Sagartiidae is valid and the type species of Sagartia is Actinia viduata (but not A. parasitica as Fautin 2016 wrote). The consequences of the discovery of the fact that Actinia viduata is the type species of Sagartia are much less harmful than it would be the case if A. parasitica was the type. The current valid nomen of Actinia viduata is Sagartiogeton viduatus. Sagartiogeton belongs to the Sagartiidae, so the composition of this family is not affected. Moreover, Sagartiogeton includes two morphologically distinct groups of species. One group, which includes the type species of the genus, Sagartiogeton robustus, comprises the deep-water species having a thick (robust) column and distinct tenaculi. Another group comprises several mostly shallow-water species having a thin column: S. laceratus, S. undatus and S. viduatus. If the genus was divided in two genera, the generic nomen Sagartiogeton would remain valid for Sagartiogeton robustus and the related thick-walled species, while the thin-walled species currently known as Sagartiogeton laceratus, S. undatus and S. viduatus would receive the generic nomen Sagartia.
The species formerly assigned to Sagartia required a new generic nomen. The oldest available generic nomen for them is Cylista Wright, 1859. Cylista becomes a valid generic nomen for the species formerly known as Sagartia troglodytes, and for the congeneric species, the most well-known of which are Sagartia ornata and Sagartia elegans.
|
