What's in a Name?

I normally don’t bother you with this type of minutia, but here is a name change that affects an important (iconic, why not?) local species in Southwest Florida. Strombus alatus Gmelin, 1791, the Florida Fighting Conch, was shown to be the same species as the West Indian Fighting Conch, Strombus pugilis Linnaeus, 1758. This latter name was traditionally applied to populations of the East Coast, Keys, and Caribbean. Strombus pugilis is the older name of the two, so it is the one retained for the species. The change results from research published in a recent article* dealing with the genetics of true conchs and their close relatives. Alas, Strombus alatus is no more.

Strombus pugilis from Estero Bay, Florida. Photo by Robert Bachand.

Again, Strombus alatus and S. pugilis are now considered to be one and the same species. This makes sense given that there was always a broad gray area between the two, i.e., specimens that could be assigned to either species, associated with the purported presence of alatus x pugilis "hybrids" in some areas along the East Coast of Florida. The change has been adopted by WoRMS (the recognized authority on names of marine species) and introduced in our Southwest Florida Shells guide. Another change introduced in that article was the relocation of the Milk Conch name from Macrostrombus costatus to Aliger costatus. The genus name Macrostrombus is now accepted as a technical synonym of Aliger.

*Irwin AR, Bouchet P, Crame JA, Harper EM, Kronenberg GC, Strong EE,  Williams, ST. 2024. Molecular phylogenetics of the superfamily Stromboidea (Caenogastropoda): New insights from increased taxon sampling. Zoologica Scripta https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12685 [details]