Megalactis hemprichi

Taxonomy

The species Megalactis hemprichii was first described by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1834. The original name of the species is Megalactis hemprichii Ehrenberg, 1834, and it was established in that combination without an earlier genus-level combination documented. The genus Megalactis was established by Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834, with M. hemprichii as its type species by monotypy. The type locality for Megalactis hemprichii is recorded from the Egyptian Exclusive Economic Zone, corresponding broadly to the Egyptian Red Sea coast. The etymology of Megalactis derives from Greek, with megas meaning 'great' or 'large' and actis meaning 'ray' or 'radiance', referring to the animal’s conspicuously radiating tentacles. The species epithet hemprichii honors Friedrich Wilhelm Hemprich, a German naturalist and collector associated with Ehrenberg’s Red Sea expedition.

A historical combination, Actineria hemprichi Ehrenberg, is listed as accepted under Megalactis hemprichii, and the spelling hemprichi is also encountered, but the currently used form is hemprichii. The genus Megalactis is treated as a distinct genus of Actiniaria, with M. hemprichii as its type species. The original publication describing the species was Ehrenberg’s 1834 work on Red Sea anthozoans, titled Beiträge zur physiologischen Kenntniss der Corallenthiere im allgemeinen, und besonders des rothen Meeres.