С. S. Rafinesque as a carcinologist : an annotated compilation of the information on Crustacea contained in the works of that author

I. INTRODUCTION In the last tens of years more and more attention has been paid to the much neglected and ignored publications written by the eccentric early American naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. Until now, however, Rafinesque's work in the field of carcinology has received but little attention from modern authors. In 1905 Ortmann (1905, p. 107) pointed out that the name Astacus limosus Rafinesque, 1817, is older than the name Astacus affinis Say, 1817, for the same species, and that consequently the former name has to be used. In the same year Richardson (1905, p. 10) replaced the invalid generic name Ligia Fabricius, 1798, by Ligyda Rafinesque, 1815. M. J. Rathbun (1937, p. 63) substituted the generic name Thelxiope Rafinesque, 1814, for the name Homola Leach, 1815. Finally, in 1949 Hubricht & Mackin (1949, p. 334) dropped the generic name Mancasellus Harger, 1876, in favour of Lirceus Rafinesque, 1820, at the same time changing the species name Mancasellus macrourus Garman, 1890, to Lirceus fontinalis Rafinesque, 1820. I know of no other names given by Rafinesque to Crustacea that have been adopted by modern authors, though many of the names given by him to genera and species of that group antedate names which now are currently in use. Since the acceptance of most of Rafinesque's valid generic and specific names would greatly upset the stability of carcinological nomenclature, the present author has submitted to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature a proposal in which is asked the suppression of those of Rafinesque's Decapod and Stomatopod names that might cause undesirable nomenclatorial confusion. Since most of Rafinesque's papers were not available to me in Holland, I