Article: A replacement name for the trigonotarbid arachnid Eotarbus Dunlop

The trigonotarbid arachnid genus Eotarbus was proposed by Dunlop (1996) as a plesion taxon for a new species from the upper Silurian of Ludford Lane, Shropshire. It has since been brought to my attention that the name is preoccupied. Eotarbus Kusta, 1888 was proposed for a single species of Carboniferous arachnid, Eotarbus litoralis Kusta, 1888 from Rakovnik in the Czech Republic. This preoccupation is unfortunate, as Kusta's paper gives only a figure for this species and no formal description. Petrunkevitch (1953) reported the holotype and only known specimen as having been lost 50 years prior to his monograph, and as such was unable to place the genus, assigning it to Architarbi incertae sedis. Whilst there is clearly a case for suppressing the original use of the name Eotarbus due to the lost and inadequately described type material, a replacement generic name is proposed herein for the Ludford Lane trigonotarbid.