Unio diminutus Lea, 1859

Paralectotype(s)

Name published as diminutis in Lea, 1859, corrected to diminutus in his 1860 paper. Lea does not refer to one individual specimen in his original description, he states 'Mus. Cuming' and 'Mus. Hanley' as the source. In the 1860 paper he states 'the two specimens before me of this small and interesting species are all I have ever seen of it. That from Mr Cuming is very perfect and nearly double the size of Prof. Hanley's, which is evidently a young individual'. The original description does not specify a holotype, however Johnson, 1971 states that the 'holotype' is at the BM(NH) 1965165 (Cuming coll.). There is a note on that specimen stating 'potential lectotype', and another stating that it was designated by Johnson in 1966 (assumed to be an error, actually referring to 1971 paper). Since Johnson listed it as a Holotype and this was made pre-2000, this classifies as 'Lectotype selection by inference of Holotype' (ICZN 74.6). Leeds specimen has a Hanley label, as well as two modern labels stating that this is a paratype/syntype. Hanley refers to the specimen in his Handwritten catalogue stating 'Lea (one of his types). E. Africa'. One of the valves of the specimen has been broken.

References are listed in chronological order. References containing the "Original Description" or "Type Designation" of Unio diminutus Lea, 1859 are highlighted in red.