The authors of Kawai et al. (2015) incorrectly designated Platysiphon glacialis as the “typus” of the Platysiphonaceae. The current International Code of Nomenclature, however, specifies (Art 10.6) that the type of the name of a family is the same as that of the generic name on which it is based, namely Platysiphon R.T. Wilce. The type of the generic name Platysiphon is P. verticillatus R.T. Wilce, even when the species P. verticillatus is treated as a heterotypic synonym of P. glacialis, as done in Kawai et al. (2015). For purposes of the citation of the type of a family, citation of the generic name alone suffices.
References
- Kawai, H. , Hanyuda, T. , Draisma, S. G. A. , Wilce, R. T. & Andersen, R. 2015. Molecular phylogeny of two unusual brown algae, Phaeostrophion irregulare and Platysiphon glacialis, proposal of the Stschapoviales ord. nov. and Platysiphonaceae fam. nov., and a re‐examination of divergence times for brown algal orders. J. Phycol. 51:918–28. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]