The correct authorship of the amphipod genus-group name Quasimodia (Senticaudata: Hyaloidea: Phliantidae)

Abstract

The genus Quasimodia Sheard, 1936 belongs to the hyaloidean family Phliantidae, and contains four species inhabiting littoral and sublittoral habitats in Australia (J.L. Barnard 1972; Lowry & Stoddart 2003; Horton et al. 2018; Lowry & Myers 2019). This genus-group name was originally erected for three nominal species—Q. barnardi Sheard, 1936, Q. capricornis Sheard, 1936, and Q. womersleyi Sheard, 1936 (see Sheard 1936), but its type species was not fixed in the original publication. As such the name Quasimodia Sheard, 1936 is not available for nomenclatural purposes (Article 13.3 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature [hereafter Code], International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999). Later, J.L. Barnard (1969) selected Q. womersleyi as the type species for this genus-group name, but his action does not validate Quasimodia Sheard, 1936, which remains unavailable, under Article 69 of the Code. J.L. Barnard (1972) again incorrectly considered Quasimodia Sheard, 1936 as an available name.