The tubular barnacle Chelolepas cheloniae (Monroe & Limpus, 1979) occurs within the tissues of cheloniid sea turtles throughout the Indo-West Pacific region (Ross & Frick, Reference Ross and Frick2007). This species was originally described as Tubicinella cheloniae Monroe & Limpus, 1979 under the family Coronulidae—a previously monotypic genus represented by the tubular whale barnacle Tubicinella major (Lamarck, 1802). Tubicinella cheloniae was later placed in a new genus Chelolepas Ross & Frick, Reference Ross and Frick2007 under the family Platylepadidae, subfamily Chelolepadinae. The reasons for this placement were systematically detailed in Ross & Frick (Reference Ross and Frick2007, Reference Ross and Frick2011).
In a recent publication on the turtle and whale barnacles associated with marine vertebrates in Japanese waters (Hayashi, Reference Hayashi2012a), the author asserts that the generic name Chelolepas should be ignored because ‘there is no description and comparison on soft parts between Tubicinella major and T. cheloniae [provided by Ross & Frick (Reference Ross and Frick2007) that would facilitate placing the two species into separate genera, and, as a result, into different families under the superfamily Coronuloidea].’ A rejoinder by Frick (Reference Frick2012) addressed Hayashi's (2012a) contention—providing details and description of the ‘soft-parts’ of C. cheloniae and T. major, and a comparison of these structures between the two speciesFootnote 1. Additionally, Frick (Reference Frick2012) reemphasized the external morphological features that justified the placement of the two species under different genera and within separate families.
More recently, Hayashi (Reference Hayashi2012b) stated: ‘Ross & Frick (Reference Ross and Frick2007) revised the taxonomic position of T. cheloniae and erected a new genus Chelolepas for this species (Ross & Frick, Reference Ross and Frick2007). However this nomenclatural act was published in Marine Turtle Newsletter. The journal is open to the public via a website while this is not available work under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th edition (Article 9). This nomenclatural act cannot be validated and this was mentioned in Hayashi (2012[a]), too. So, Chelolepas is the void nomenclature and this species should be listed as Tubicinella cheloniae.’
However, in questioning the nomenclatural availability of the genus Chelolepas, Hayashi (Reference Hayashi2012a) did not invoke Article 9 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (the Code), which decrees what does not constitute a published work (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). Furthermore, his assertion (Hayashi, Reference Hayashi2012b) that the Marine Turtle Newsletter violates the Code's definition of a published work is erroneous. Marine Turtle Newsletter meets all of the criteria required by Article 8 of the Code for a work to be regarded as published for the purposes of zoological nomenclature as it is available in print form in public and university libraries worldwide (ISSN: 0839-7708), as well as in digital format on the internet (http://www.seaturtle.org/mtn/) (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). Therefore, Chelolepas is a valid name that satisfies the provisions of the Code, and Tubicinella cheloniae is a junior synonym of Chelolepas cheloniae.
