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Topic: Sphaeroma monodi

Several datasets have provided records of the marine isopod Lekanesphaera monodi (Arcangeli), which NBN considers to be the current name for  Sphaeroma monodi Bocquet, Hoestlandt & Levi, 1954. However, Jacobs 1987 revision of European Sphaeroma  says these two are not synonyms. He gives Sphaeroma monodi Bocquet, Hoestlandt & Levi as a junior synonym of Lekanesphaera levii and says Lekanesphaera monodi (Arcangeli) is found in the Mediterranean, Adriatic and black Seas.

So should Lekanesphaera monodi (Arcangeli) be on the British list? Should all its records be transferred to L. levii?

If you put Jacobs Sphaeroma into Google Scholar it brings up the revision.

John Bratton

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Re: Sphaeroma monodi

Hi John

My gut feeling here would be to synonymise them and to modify the name "Lekanesphaera monodi" to "Lekanesphaera monodi auct. brit." to account for the fact that this is just a British misuse of the name. If all the UK records should really be attributed to "Lekanesphaera levii" and monodi is absolutely not found here then this would be the cleanest way to do it. Do you think this would sort the issue?

Best wishes,
Chris R.

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)

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Re: Sphaeroma monodi

S. levii is already in the dictionary with a few records, so if Jacobs' review is correct (I'm not qualified to say but presumably someone in the Nat Hist Museum can), I would transfer the monodi records to levii and put S. monodi Bocquet et al. as a synonym of levii. Is that what you are suggesting?

John

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Re: Sphaeroma monodi

That's pretty much what I was thinking, except I have no control over the biological records themselves - just the names that they were attached to. But by synonymising the various names all the records will then fall under the same taxonomic concept with the name of "Lekanesphaera levii".

Chris R.

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)