I believe the Danes may have material from at or near the type locality; and
I seem to remember that at least some years ago Reinhardt Christensen used
to go to a lab up there, not the exact locality, but certainly better than
material from boreal or subtropical regions. It would require a fair bit of
collaboration from a lot of people, but, and I believe this is important, in
order to make this stick, we would need fresh specimens from at or near the
type locality. Now, of course the climate up there is no longer what it was
when Fabricius was running around there at the end of the Little Iceage, but
that is something we would have to chance!
Kristian Fauchald
Kristian Fauchald, Research Zoologist
Department of Zoology
NMNH, Smithsonian Institution
P.O.Box 37012,
NHB MRC 0163
Washington, DC 20013-7012
phone: 202.633.1777
fax 202.357.3043
fax: 202.357.3043
>>> "Rouse, Greg (SAM)" <rouse.greg at saugov.sa.gov.au> 06/27/06 10:04 PM >>>
Unless I am mistaken, the type locality for Capitella capitata Fabricius
1780 is Greenland (and a not easily accessible part of Greenland at that).
There is no existing type material, so fixing C. capitata, and arguably
other names for this 'complex', depends on recollecting from the type
locality and seeing what kind (or kinds) of Capitella occur there and then
fixing the name to a neotype; thats if one is fan of types of
course...(thanks ICZN). I presume this would have been done long ago, except
for the difficult naure of the type locality.....
greg
