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Case 3882

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Case 3882: Urceolaria Stein, 1867 and URCEOLARIIDAE Stein, 1867 (Ciliophora, Peritrichia): proposed conservation of usage by giving them precedence over the names Urceolaria Lamarck, 1816 nec Lamarck, 1801 and URCEOLARIIDAE Dujardin, 1841 and by ruling that the names Urceolariella Corliss, 1977 and URCEOLARIELLIDAE Corliss, 1977 are unavailable

Status of Case:Open Cases
Date Published:12/2025
Authors: Aescht, E.
Volume and Issue:82/
Pagination:95-125
Keywords: Nomenclature; taxonomy; genus-group; family-group; Urceolaria; Trichodina mitra; Urceolariidae; homonymy; reversal of precedence; mobiline peritrichs
Taxonomic Group(s): Ciliophora
Abstract:

The purpose of this application, under Articles 23.9.3, 61.1 and 81.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, is to conserve the current usage of the name URCEOLARIIDAE Stein, 1867 (incorrect original spelling Urceolarina) for a family of broadly-studied mobiline peritrichs (Ciliophora)—ectosymbionts of freshwater Turbellaria, marine polychaetes and molluscs—by reversing its precedence with respect to the senior homonym URCEOLARIIDAE Dujardin, 1841 (incorrect original spelling “Urcéolariens”, latinised as URCEOLARINA), and to conserve the current usage of its type genus, Urceolaria Stein, 1867, by confirming Trichodina mitra Siebold, 1845 as the type species by monotypy. The homonymy with Urceolaria Lamarck, 1801 (a permanently invalid, junior objective synonym of a rotiferan genus) and Urceolaria Lamarck, 1816 was overlooked until 1938 and remained unresolved until 1977, when Corliss replaced Urceolaria (without giving the authorship, date and type species) with Urceolariella and proposed the family name URCEOLARIELLIDAE (again without further information). Both these names were disregarded by Corliss himself and have been used only once since 1979; moreover, their availability is questionable because no bibliographic references were given by Corliss. To confirm Urceolariella and URCEOLARIELLIDAE as available names now would cause great confusion in the mobiline peritrich genus- and family-level taxonomy. Until now, all names based on the stem Urceolari- (from the Latin urceola meaning pitcher, vase or urn) have an uncertain date of priority and authorship, which is confusing to taxonomists, parasitologists and ecologists alike. In preparation for these rulings, the earliest subsequent typification for a nominal genus of ciliates was discovered: that by Baudement in 1849, who designated Urceolaria stellina (original combination Vorticella stellina Müller, 1786) as the type species of Urceolaria Lamarck, 1816.

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