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This species is well known for every marine aquarist as a pest anemone "Aiptasia". In 2014 Grajales and Rodriguez showed that it differs in some significant points from true Aiptasia species and created a new genus Exaiptasia for it. These authors also synonymized several Aiptasia species, including European species Aiptasia diaphana (Rapp, 1829), with Aiptasia pallida (Agassiz in Verrill, 1864). In accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the older name (Aiptasia diaphana) must be used as valid name. Grajales and Rodriguez (2014), however, preferred to use the junior (=invalid) synonym Aiptasia pallida as a valid species name. To validate the usage of the name Aiptasia pallida a request has been sent to International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (Case 3633). The request has been declined by Commission in 2017 (Opinion 2404) - according to the decision of Commission the name Aiptasia diaphana has a precedence over Aiptasia pallida and therefore in the case of synonymisation of these two species valid name would be Aiptasia diaphana.
In 2019 Grajales and Rodriguez again submitted similar request to Commission (Case 3790). These authors claimed: "While the case is under consideration, the junior name is to be maintained". This opinion is wrong, this case is regulated by Article 82.1 which reads: "When a case is under consideration by the Commission, prevailing usage (see Glossary) of names is to be maintained until the ruling of the Commission is published." The key phrase here is the "prevailing usage". The name Aiptasia diaphana was (and is) widely used as a valid name for European specimens of this species by many authors (i.e. prevailingly used in Europe) and we see no reason why younger (=invalid) synonym, Aiptasia pallida, should be given a precedence. Valid name for this species is Exaiptasia diaphana. See a similar case described under Adamsia palliata.
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