Prostoma biancastro, Delle Chiaje, 1841

Kajihara, Hiroshi, 2025, A taxonomic revision of the freshwater monostiliferous hoplonemertean genus Prostoma Dugès, 1828 (Nemertea: Eumonostilifera): a radical solution or an over-lumping?, Zootaxa 5646 (4), pp. 451-500 : 472

1. biancastro Delle Chiaje, 1841 and biancestro Delle Chiaje, 1841

Source. As “ p. biancastro ” [sic] in Delle Chiaje (1841: 111).

Type locality. Sicily, Italy .

Etymology. Italian adjective, biancastro , meaning “whitish”.

Remarks. Dugès (1830: 74) identified a four-eyed species found under stones in the rocky intertidal zone of the Mediterranean as Prostoma candidum ( Müller, 1774) . The specimen was fusiform, 22 mm in length, yellowish and mottled with white, with a brown line extending from the anterior to the posterior. Later, Delle Chiaje (1841: 111) observed a form with four eyes and a greenish-yellow body in Sicily, which he tentatively identified as Prostoma candidum of Dugès (1830). In a taxonomic heading, Delle Chiaje (1841: 111) referred to it as “ P. candidum ? ( p. biancastro ) DUG. ” Bürger (1904: 64) included Delle Chiaje’s (1841) “ P. biancastro ” in the synonymy of Prostoma candidum ( Müller, 1774) . “ Prostoma biancestro Delle Chiaje, 1841 ” [sic] is listed as if it were an available (but invalid) name by Gibson (1995: 494). However, it is evident from Delle Chiaje’s (1841) text that “biancastro ” was an Italian vernacular name rather than a scientific name.