Dear Don,
All of these including the Brazilian names are Conus ziczac. The type specimen of ziczac was illustrated by Alan Kohn who recognized it as a western Atlantic shell (pg. 186, "The specimen is undoubtedly from the western Atlantic rather than the Mediterranean Sea." His citation of the range is incorrect. He apparently though it related to C. flavescens, which is incorrect. C. flavescens has no spiral cords on the whorl tops, whereas C. ziczac does and these are visible on the type of ziczac. Filmer pronounce C. couderti a synonym of C. erythraeensis, which I agree with.
Filmer declared C. ziczac a senior synonym of C. beddomei and of C. archetypus and further stated that it should be considered a nomen oblitum. Kohn's account makes this arguement moot. There is no good reason not to use C. ziczac. One certainly cannot argue against it to preserve nomenclatural stability. This species has been through more names than most other species. It was know for years as C. brasiliensis then the name archetypus was revived and now a large number of variants have been named.
I doubt that there is sufficient real zoological evidence that the species is polytypic other than wishful thinking. I think that the following are junior synonyms of C. ziczac Muelfeld
abrolhosensis Petuch, 1987
archetypus Crosse, 1865
baianco Coltro, 2004
beddomei G. B. Sowerby III, 1901
bertarollae Costa and Simone, 1997
brasiliensis Clench, 1942
cargilei Coltro, 2004
colombianus Petuch, 1987
hennequini Petuch, 1993
and
mauricioi Coltro 2004.
If the Brazilian and southern Caribbean populations can be separated then archetypus is the senior name for the Brazilian shells.
Should someone propose to suppress C. ziczac as a name for the west Atlantic species I would oppose that on what I think are strong grounds, Namely use of the name is appropriate and does not threaten nomenclatural stability.
Yours,
John K. Tucker
-----Original message-----
From: Don Barclay [log in to unmask]
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:30:30 -0600
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Conus couderti/ziczac/beddomei
Hi Cone Fans,
There seems to be quite a bit of disagreement about the
name of the cone shell from the Caribbean that many
have called Conus couderti. I read on Ross' website
and other locations that this name was shown to belong
to a color form of Conus erythraeensis. Ross says that
Paul Kersten believes it should be renamed, or considered
to be, Conus ziczac Mühlfeld 1816, although Hardy shows
this to be a synonym of Conus archetypus beddomei, I
presume per Mike Filmer's recommendation. I wonder
what the conventional wisdom is concerning these shells,
and if there are differences of opinion concerning appli-
cation of these names, specifically the Brazilian shells
versus the northern Caribbean shells?
Many thanks,
Don
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