Family CHIROPSALMIDAE Thiel, 1936

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Family CHIROPSALMIDAE Thiel, 1936

Compiler and date details

June 2012 - Lisa-ann Gershwin

DRAFT RECORD

This taxon is under review. This record is released now for public view, prior to final verification. For further information or comment email us.

Gershwin, L. 2006. Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new species. Zootaxa 1231: 1-42 [5]

Introduction

Thiel (1936) erected the family Chiropsalmidae to replace the family Chirodropidae based on his opinion that the genus name Chirodropus was invalid. Gershwin (2006b) disagreed about the invalidity of Chirodropus, and resurrected the family Chiropsalmidae in an emended sense.

Two other families have been previously proposed that overlap to some degree with the Chiropsalmidae, both applying to Chiropsoides buitendijki. Krumbach (1925) proposed the family name Drepanochiridae for his newly erected genus Drepanochirus, which was meant to separate Drepanochirus (=Chiropsalmus) buitendijki from the other Chiropsalmus species. Southcott (1956) found the genus name Drepanochirus to be preoccupied for a coleopterid, and thus proposed the genus name Chiropsoides and the corresponding family name Chiropsoididae, once again emphasizing the uniqueness of ‘Chiropsalmus buitendijki’. It may well be that further studies into the morphology and genetics of Chiropsoides buitendijki will prove it worthy of higher level separation, but it seems most conservative to recognize its close relationship to Chiropsalmus (based on the smooth, pendant gastric saccules) in the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary.