Polysiphonia forcipata Harvey, 1855b: 541, nom. illeg. (lectotype locality: Rottnest Island, Western Australia fide Womersley, 1979: 495).—J. Agardh, 1863 [1851–1863]: 1024–1025.— Kützing, 1864: 15, pl. 44: figs. a–d.— Sonder, 1880: 35.— De Toni, 1903: 920–921.— Lucas, 1909: 41.— Lucas & Perrin, 1947: 272.
Vertebrata forcipata Kuntze, 1891: 928.
Polysiphonia forfex Harvey, 1859a: pl. XCVI.—Harvey, 1863: xxii.— Womersley, 1979: 495–496, figs. 10D–G.— Huisman & Walker, 1990: 439.
Polysiphonia japonica Harvey var. forfex (Harvey) Yoon, 1986: 36.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: Australia.
Note: Polysiphonia forfex was proposed as a substitute name for P. forcipata Harvey, a later homonym of P. forcipata J. Agardh (1842: 117–118; type locality: Trieste, Italy), which J. Agardh (1863 [1851–1863]: 1025) referred to P. furcellata (C. Agardh) Harvey (in W. Hooker, 1833: 332), a species not recorded from the Indian Ocean.