Bryopsis plumosa (Hudson) C. Agardh var. secunda Harvey, 1858a: 31, pl. XLV.A: figs. 1–3 (syntype localities: Key West and Sand Key, Florida, U.S.A.).
Bryopsis pennata Lamouroux var. secunda (Harvey) Collins & Hervey, 1917: 62.—S. Dixit, 1940a: 87–88.— S. Dixit, 1968: 14.— Rhyne, 1971: 49.— Jaasund, 1976: 17, fig. 36.— Jaasund, 1977d: 512.— Lawson, 1980: 4.— Teo & Wee, 1983: 49, fig. 46.— Phang & Wee, 1991: 57.— Jagtap, 1993: table I.— Ormond & Banaimoon, 1994: 116.
Possible taxonomic or nomenclatural synonym:
Bryopsis harveyana J. Agardh, 1887: 22–23 (syntype localities: Florida, U.S.A.; Tonga).—Børgesen, 1946: 34–35, fig. 13.
Misapplied name (fide Børgesen, 1946: 35):
Bryopsis cespitosa.—Jadin, 1935: 156.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: Diego Garcia Atoll, India, Mauritius, Réunion, Singapore, Tanzania, Yemen.
Note: The name Bryopsis plumosa (Hudson) C. Agardh var. secunda first appeared, without a description, in Harvey's exsiccata, "Friendly Island Algae'' (Harvey, 1857b: no. 98). When Harvey validated the name the following year, he described algae from Florida without mentioning his Tonga collection. With Harvey's collections from both Florida and Tonga in hand, J. Agardh (l.c.) proposed a new species, B. harveyana, citing B. plumosa var. secunda Harvey as a synonym. Because J. Agardh changed the rank of the taxon, he was not obligated to adopt the epithet secunda, nor could he do so in view of the existence of B. secunda J. Agardh (1841: 454) from the Mediterranean. More important, the lectotype of B. harveyana need not be one of Harvey's Florida collections. If the Tonga specimen were designated lectotype, B. harveyana would either be a taxonomic synonym of B. plumosa var. secunda or apply to a different taxon, depending upon taxonomic opinion. Although the relationship between the two names remains to be clarified, the Børgesen record of B. harveyana from Réunion all but certainly represents the same taxon as the Indian Ocean records of B. pennata var. secunda.