Opinions and declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

The purpose of this application is to conserve the specific name of Halacarus ctenopus Gosse, 1855 in its accustomed usage. H. ctenopus is the type species of Halacarus Gosse, 1855, a widespread genus of microscopic marine mites. The name Halacarus has been used continuously for 146 years. However, the interpretation of the genus and H. ctenopus has been based on Lohmann (1893) who applied Gosse's name to a different species. Gosse's taxon is now placed in Thalassarachna Packard, 1871 under the name T. basteri (Johnston, 1836). It is proposed that a neotype of H. ctenopus be designated in the taxonomic sense of Lohmann (1893) in order to conserve usage of the names Halacarus, H. ctenopus and Thalassarachna.

Opinions and declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

The identification of the featured examples is tentative. They bear a strong resemblance to Bipalium vagum, a species described from Bermuda, and recently discovered and regarded as an invasive species in the southern United States. Similar looking animals are known from Taiwan. This species is known to be a predator of terrestrial snails (Ducey et al., 2007). Terrestrial flatworms are usually found in damp wooded places. Based on our personal observations, terrestrial flatworms with this colour pattern do not seem to be one of the forms known in Singapore (see de Beauchamp, 1933; Yeo, 2011). This taxon appears to be recorded there for the first time. If these examples are indeed Bipalium vagum, the local population is likely to be derived from individuals that were introduced possibly with imported ornamental plants.

There appears to be up to five species of Bipalium depicted here; three species if two should turn out to be juvenile forms. Four species of the genus Bipalium have been recorded in Singapore (Yeo, 2011). However, as the relevant reference literature is not readily accessible, it is not possible to identify the taxa shown here.

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12067/498

When the Training Department of SEAFDEC was approached at the beginning of this year by Professor Rapee Sagarik, the Rector of Kasetsart University, requesting us to provide an intensive course of training in fisheries for students of the Faculty of Fisheries of the University we gladly agreed to his request. And to help the understanding of the students we prepared this handbook, based on the lecture notes used by our instructors during the past decade.