Cardita

Some older sources use Cardita for the genus Cardites, and vice versa. See below for details.
Cardita
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Carditoida
Superfamily: Carditoidea
Family: Carditidae
Subfamily: Carditinae
Genus: Cardita
Bruguière, 1792
Species

See text

Synonyms

"Arcinella" Oken, 1815 (non Schumacher, 1817: non-binomial)
Cardites Lamarck, 1801 (non Link, 1807: nomen rejectum)
Heterocarda Rafinesque, 1815
Herterocarda (lapsus)
Jesonia Gray, 1847 (non Gray, 1840: nomen nudum)
Mytilicadia (lapsus)
Mytilicardes (lapsus)
Mytilicardia Herrmannsen, 1847
Mytilicardita Anton, 1838
and see text

Cardita is a genus of marine bivalve molluscs, in the family Carditidae.[1]

Especially in the early 18th century, this genus was often confused with its relative Cardites. This started with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck describing the present genus as Cardites in 1801. However, J.H.F. Link in 1807 used that name to establish a distinct genus. When this was realized, Megerle in 1811 re-described Link's genus as Cardita.

But Cardita had already been validly established for the present genus by J.G. Bruguière in 1792; thus Megerle's action resulted in four technically valid names which formed two mutual pairs of homonyms. The matter was ultimately resolved by starting with the oldest name that of Bruguière and applying it as intended, and suppressing Lamarck's name so that Link's junior homonym could be used for Cardites.

In addition to the numerous junior synonyms, Byssomera usually included in Carditamera nowadays might actually belong in Cardita too.

Species

References