Sepia flagellata Curtiss, 1938

Low, Martyn E. Y. & Tan, Siong Kiat, 2014, On the identities of the molluscan names described in A Short Zoology of Ta h i t i in the Society Islands by Anthony Curtiss in 1938 (Mollusca: Cephalopoda, Gastropoda), Zootaxa 3764 (3), pp. 394-400 : 396

Sepia flagellata Curtiss, 1938 , an unavailable name based on a hypothetical concept

Original description (p. 188). “The feé árava, as the Indians call it, is said to be a twelve-armed species of cuttle that comes out of the ocean at night, and feeds on turds, small rats, and other nasty things. I never saw one, and it may be a fable; but many Indians, whose words proved true in other matters, assured me that there was such a creature. The words feé árava mean merely striped cuttle, the word árava meaning a stripe or weal, like the mark left by a whip. ( Sepia flagellata . (Seaside, near Tautira.))”.

Identity. To the best of our knowledge, there is no known cephalopod species with twelve arms. Furthermore, Curtiss himself seems to have suspected that this entity was based on folklore, a conclusion supported by the additional notes on this animal’s habits. Article 1.3.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999: 3) makes it clear that “hypothetical concepts” are excluded from the provisions of zoological nomenclature. As such the name Sepia flagellata is not an available name and does not enter into zoological nomenclature.