Redescription and Holotype Clarification Of Paralichthys Orbignyanus (Valenciennes, 1839) (pleuronectiformes: Paralichthyidae)
Collecting by Alcide D'Orbigny in the western South Atlantic provided material for Platessa orbignyana Valenciennes, 1839, published as an illustration of the holotype without accompanying descriptive information. A brief and inadequate description was provided in 1847. Thereafter, the holotype was thought to be lost, precluding comparative study and resulting in nomenclatural confusion for other nominal paralichthyid species. A specimen of Paralichthys collected in the Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina by D'Orbigny at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (MNHN 1999-0295) is here identified as the holotype of Platessa orbignyana Valenciennes, 1839. A redescription of the holotype and comparison with other South Atlantic species resolves several nomenclatural issues.Abstract
Original illustration of the holotype of Platessa orbignyanaValenciennes, 1839 ( = Paralichthys orbignyanus), published as Figure 1 of Plate 16 in the Atlas of D'Orbigny's Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale
Holotype of Paralichthys orbignyanus (Valenciennes, 1839), MNHN 1999-0295, female, 349 mm SL, Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina