Caecidotea racovitzai (Williams 1970)

Asellus racovitzai

Asellus communis Say.—Racovitza, 1920, pp. 79–95, figs. 52–73.

As indicated under A. communis, Racovitza (1920) described fully a species, which he took to be A. communis Say, on the basis of three specimens (2 , 1 ) from the Potomac River, Virginia, a locality some 125 miles from the place where we may presume Say had collected his material of A. communis. Racovitza’s assumption of conspecificity between this material and A. communis appears to have been quite arbitrary. As the neotype of A. communis is quite clearly a different species from the one described by Racovitza, a new name now needs to be applied to the species described by him. It is appropriate that this be A. racovitzai in his honor.

There is no doubt of the identity of A. racovitzai or of the fact that it is a species quite distinct from A. communis; not only is Racovitza’s description very complete, but also there is still in existence the remains of the collection from whence came the three specimens sent to him. Examination of this confirmed the accuracy of his description.

During the examination of material referable to A. racovitzai, it became clear that two minor taxa were involved, one widespread in northeastern United States and southeastern Canada but occurring also in British Columbia and Washington State (see below), and one confined to a smaller region (Georgia and Florida) in southeastern United States. The differences between these two taxa are considered to be of subspecific value. The taxon first described by Racovitza is regarded as the nominate subspecies and its further description given here and the selection of type material for it is based upon the remains of the collection in the United States National Museum from which Racovitza was sent 3 specimens; the taxon known thus far only from the southeast United States is given the name A. racovitzai australis.