Latrunculia insignis var. regularis Samaai & Krasokhin, 2002

Van Soest, Rob W. M., 2024, Correcting sponge names: nomenclatural update of lower taxa level Porifera, Zootaxa 5398 (1), pp. 1-122 : 70-71

Latrunculia insignis var. regularis Samaai & Krasokhin, 2002

Latrunculia insignis var. regularis ‘Topsent, 1895’; Samaai & Krasokhin 2002: 99 (error, mentioned only).

Latrunculia insignis var. regularis ; Samaai, Gibbons & Kelly 2006: table 1, p.13 (error).

Sceptrella sp. Samaai, Gibbons & Kelly 2006: table 1, p. 13.

The combination Latrunculia insignis var. regularis Topsent, 1895 was used in Samaai & Krasokhin (2002: 99) in a discussion of the species Latrunculia oparinae Samaai & Krasokhin, 2002 and these authors made a reassignment to Sceptrella for the combination. There are more errors in the paper, e.g. Latrunculia insignis was given the authoryear combination Topsent 1897, whereas it should have been Topsent 1890. The present variety was listed by Samaai et al. 2006 in a large table (Table 1) with ‘identification reference’ Topsent, and with MNHN type slide reg. nrs. DT 860 and 1352. Topsent published two papers in 1895 ( Denis, 1952), a preliminary study of the collections made by the ‘Princess Alice’ near the Azores and a monograph on the Carnosa of France. The former paper lists Latrunculia insignis , but not the variety, the latter paper has no reference to Latrunculia insignis or the present variety. The combination is not described in any of Topsent’s papers, so it is likely a manuscript name found on specimen labels. Its status is a nomen nudum as there is no description or illustration. The varietal name combination is to be reverted to Sceptrella insignis ( Topsent, 1890) .