Lacazella mauritiana

The problematic status of this species was described by Logan (2005) and Simon and Hoffmann (2013), since the only specimen collected by Sir Henry Barkly from Mauritius, which was in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, is missing and presumed lost. In spite of an exhaustive search of the undersides of platy corals from Mauritius in the Natural History Museum in London by Logan in 2014 no further specimens have been found. Whether the missing holotype belonged to Lacazella or Ospreyella can therefore not yet be determined with any degree of certainty, since Dall’s (1920) description is ambiguous and Cooper’s figures (1973, pl. 1, figs 7 – 9) are not clear enough. Zezina (1987) identified specimens found off Europa Island as L. mauritiana but her material has since been identified as belonging to Ospreyella by Simon and Hoffmann (2013). The only specimen still identified as L. mauritiana in a natural history collection seems to be ZMB Bra 216, consisting of a single ventral valve. As the diagnostic characters distinguishing Lacazella from Ospreyella are to be found primarily in the dorsal valve, this specimen does not help to resolve the status of L. mauritiana.