Griffithsia brachyarthra Kützing in Hohenacker, 1860 [1852–1862]: no. 437 (type locality: "Cap'' [probably Cape Agulhas, Cape Province, South Africa]).
Pachychaeta brachyarthra (Kützing) Trevisan, 1875: 384, footnote.—Falkenberg, 1901: 574–577, pl. 13: figs. 17–20.— Mazza, 1909 [1905–1918]: 132–135.— Delf & Michell, 1921: 113.— De Toni, 1924: 412.— Kylin, 1956: 510.— Hommersand, 1963: 278–291, figs. 44–50, pl. 6.— Seagrief, 1988: 66, fig. 5:15.— R. Anderson & Stegenga, 1989: 303, 304, 305, 306.
Pachychaeta griffithsioides Kützing, 1862: 11–12, pl. 35, nom. illeg.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: South Africa.
Note: When establishing the genus Pachychaeta, Kützing (1862: 11–12) illegitimately changed the epithet of the type species from brachyarthra to griffithsioides. The plant that he figured was said to come from the Antilles. Hommersand (l.c.) examined this specimen, which is housed at Leiden and marked "Antigua'', and found it to be in complete agreement with South African material. He concluded that "Antigua'' was an error and that the specimen might be a part of the Hohenacker South African collection.