We feel that the Commission should reject the petition to conserve Nettastomella Carpenter, 1865. The best interests of nomenclatural stability will not be served by the suppression of the earlier Netastoma Carpenter, 1864. The recent works listed in the petition by Coan & Kennedy (McLean, 1969; Keen & Coan, 1974; Coan & Carlton, 1975), all of which use the older name, are currently the standard references for the Californian Province. To them can be added McLean, J. H., 1978, Marine seashells of southern California, Los Angeles Mus. nat. Hist, sci. Ser. no. 24, 104 pp. 54 figs. Further, the Law of Priority is a fundamental precept of the code of nomenclature and any overruling of it should occur only in instances of clear non-usage of an older name. This is certainly not the case with this problem.

      We therefore request the Commission (1) to place the earlier name Netastoma Carpenter, 1864 (gender: neuter), type species, by monotypy, Pholas darwinii G.B. Sowerby II, 1849, on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology, and (2) to place the specific name darwinii G.B. Sowerby II, 1849, as published in the binomen Pholas darwinii, on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology.

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