Kirk,
Off the top of my head, without checking how many additional species you would have to go through and not knowing what your chances are of getting good material, I would name a new genus, with the proviso that more of the species currently listed in Fabricia may turn out to belong to this new genus, but that under any circumstances the two species you know: F. stellaris (for others, not so knowledgable in fabriciin taxonomy this is actually the correct name for Fabricia sabella of world-wide fame) and (currently) F. oregonica do not belong to the same genus as the concepts are currently defined. It is a tentative sort of thing, but it points to a problem we did not know we had and is more easily retrieved with a new generic name than without.
Kristian
From: annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu [mailto:annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu] On Behalf Of J. Kirk Fitzhugh
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:24 PM
To: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu
Subject: [Annelida] the status of Fabricia oregonica
All,
I wanted to ask for opinions on a basic nomenclatural/systematics decision that I have to make. I'm finishing descriptions of recently collected individuals of Fabricia oregonica Banse, 1956. The original material is in extremely poor condition, which precluded me from earlier adding to Banse's description. Plus, the only well described species in Fabricia up to this point is F. stellaris. With these new specimens belonging to F. oregonica, I've looked at phylogenetic relationships, and F. oregonica is not a sister taxon to F. stellaris.
So, I have two choices. (1) Place F. oregonica in a yet another new, monotypic genus. (2) Leave the species in Fabricia, and just acknowledge that the genus can't be unambiguously defined.
Any thoughts? Opinions?
Thanks,
Kirk
--
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J. Kirk Fitzhugh, Ph.D.
Curator of Polychaetes
Invertebrate Zoology Section
Research & Collections Branch
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90007
Phone: 213-763-3233
FAX: 213-746-2999
e-mail: kfitzhug from nhm.org<mailto:kfitzhug from nhm.org>
http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/polychaetous-annelids
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