A replacement name for Linyphantes pacificus Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942 (Araneae: Linyphiidae)
Introduction
BANKS (1909: 49) described Bathyphantes pacifica Banks, 1909 from the state of Washington, U.S.A. on the basis of both sexes. The illustrations in the original description show the male palp possesses a coiled embolus and a two pronged sclerite (Figs. 1 2) and the epigyne of the female has a median tongue like scape, widely spaced from the lateral edges of the rest of the epigyne (Fig. 3). This species remained untouched in the taxonomic literature until IVIE (1967: 130) transferred it to the genus Linyphantes Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942, in a short text only paper based on his examination of many type specimens deposited in various natural history museums. IVIE (1967) seemingly did not notice this transfer created a homonym. A quarter of a century earlier, he co authored a large paper describing (at the time) one hundred new species of spider (CHAMBERLIN & IVIE 1942). One of the newly described species was Linyphantes pacificus Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942, described from both sexes from California, U.S.A. The homonymy was first noticed by PLATNICK (1993: 306) and has been recorded in all subsequent versions of the WORLD SPIDER CATALOG (2000 2023), but no replacement name has been proposed during this time. As the latterly described name, L. pacificus Chamberlin, 1942 which has no junior synonyms must be replaced in accordance with Article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999). This contribution presents a replacement name for this species.
