GALAXAURACEAE
Note: This family was known as Chaetangiaceae until 1983, when the Sydney Code clarified the typification of generic names in such a way that Chaetangium Kützing (1843b: 392) was required to be typified with Fucus ornatus Linnaeus (1771: 312; type locality: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa), the only species cited in the protologue, rather than with material in hand. Papenfuss (1952: 173) examined the type of F. ornatus in Linnaeus's herbarium (LINN) and found that it was conspecific with F. vittatus Linnaeus (1767b: 718), the type species of Suhria J. Agardh ex Endlicher (1843: 41) in the Gelidiaceae. To accommodate the material in Kützing's hand, which for many decades had been called erroneously Chaetangium ornatum (Linnaeus) Kützing, Papenfuss (l.c.) adopted a synonym, Fucus erinaceus Turner (Nothogenia erinacea (Turner) Parkinson), but retained the generic name Chaetangium. After the Sydney Code made it clear that Chaetangium must be typified with F. ornatus, Parkinson (1983: 606) pointed out that this generic name had priority over Suhria by a few days. To prevent confusion arising from the use of the name Chaetangium in the Gelidiaceae, he proposed Suhria for conservation against Chaetangium, and this proposal was approved by the Committee for Algae (Christensen, 1987a: 67). Parkinson (op.cit.) resurrected Nothogenia Montagne (1843a: 302) as a replacement for Chaetangium. The type species, Nothogenia variolosa (Montagne) Montagne (Chondrus variolosus Montagne, 1842a: 6; type locality: Auckland Islands), had been placed by Kylin (in Kylin & Skottsberg, 1919: 6) in the synonymy of Chaetangium fastigiatum (Bory de Saint-Vincent) J. Agardh (1851 [1851–1863]: 460) (Halymenia fastigiata Bory de Saint-Vincent in Dumont d'Urville, 1826: 594; type locality: Falkland Islands). Because the name Chaetangiaceae must be considered a taxonomic synonym of Gelidiaceae, Parkinson simultaneously established the family Galaxauraceae.
Fucus fragilis Forsskål, 1775: 190 (type locality: Mokha, Yemen).
Actinotrichia fragilis (Forsskål) Børgesen, 1932c: 6–7.—Børgesen, 1937b: 321.— Børgesen, 1942b: 44–45.— Børgesen, 1950b: 5.— Børgesen, 1951: 35.— Durairatnam, 1961a: 49.— S. Dixit, 1966: 11.— Isaac, 1967: 79.— W. Isaac & F. Isaac, 1968: 23.— Umamaheswara Rao, 1969d: 43.— V. Krishnamurthy & H. Joshi, 1970: 17.— Islam, 1974b: 87.— Sartoni, 1975: 291.— Islam, 1976: 51, pl. 51: figs. 294, 295; pl. 55: fig. 335; pl. 61: figs. 363–366.— Jaasund, 1976: 65, fig. 131.— Sartoni, 1976: 129.— Hackett, 1977: 13.— Jaasund, 1977c: 416.— Farghaly, 1980: 160, pl. XVII: fig. 2.— Lawson, 1980: 33.— Moorjani, 1980b: 463 (`fragilissima' in error).— Seagrief, 1980: 24, fig. on pl. 6.— Untawale, Dhargalkar, & Agadi, 1983: [27].— Barratt et al., 1984: species list.— Payri, 1985: 640.— Chennubhotla, Kaliaperumal, & Kalimuthu, 1987a: 106–107.— Moorjani & Simpson, 1988: 25, pl. 45.— Desikachary, V. Krishnamurthy, & M. Balakrishnan, 1990: 167–169, figs. 35, 36, pl. XXI.A.— Bodas & Chaugule, 1992: 115–117, figs. 1–7.— Coppejans & Prud'homme van Reine, 1992a: 181.— Bakus et al., 1994: 127.— Ballesteros, 1994: 539.— Kerkar, 1994: table 1.— Wynne, 1995: 264.
Taxonomic synonym:
* Galaxaura rigida Lamouroux, 1816: 265, pl. VIII: fig. 4 (type locality: "la mer des Indes'').—Lamouroux in Quoy & Gaimard, 1824: 623, pl. 91: figs. 10, 11.— Combres, Bianchini, & Gaydou, 1986: 340.
Actinotrichia rigida (Lamouroux) Decaisne, 1842b: 118.—Kützing, 1849: 531.— G. Martens, 1868: 25, 88.— Dickie, 1874b: 196.— Sonder, 1879: 83.— Bornet, 1888: 20.— De Toni & Levi, 1888: 33.— Schmitz, 1895a: 139.— Schmitz, 1895b: 26.— De Toni, 1897: 117.— Schmitz & Hauptfleisch, 1897 [1896–1897]: 339.— Barton, 1903b: 164.— Schröder, 1912: 299.— Mazza, 1919 [1919–1925]: 38–39.— Weber-van Bosse, 1921: 207–208, pl. VI: figs. 1, 2.— De Toni, 1924: 145.— Kylin, 1956: 121, fig. 74.— V. Krishnamurthy & H. Joshi, 1970: 17.— Pichon, 1978: 149, 235, 410.— Untawale, Dhargalkar, & Agadi, 1983: [27].
Misapplied name (fide Schmitz, 1895a: 143–144):
Galaxaura indurata.—Hauck, 1888 [1886–1889]: 87.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: Bangladesh, Djibouti, India, Indonesia (Sumatra; Sumba; Timor), Kenya, Laccadive Islands, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Réunion, Seychelles (including Mahé Island), Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania.
Note: The synonymy was proposed by Børgesen (1932c: 6–7).