Page 1 - NAUTILUS_122-1_Garilli

THE NAUTILUS 122(1):19–51, 2008
On some Neogene to Recent species related to Galeodina
Monterosato, 1884, Galeodinopsis Sacco, 1895, and Massotia
Bucquoy, Dautzenberg, and Dollfus, 1884 (Caenogastropoda:
Rissoidae) with the description of two new Alvania species from
the Mediterranean Pleistocene
Vittorio Garilli
APEMA Research and Educational Service
Via Alla Falconara, 34
I-90136 Palermo, ITALY
vittoriogarilli@apema.eu.
ABSTRACT
Six species, related to the subgenera Galeodina, Galeodinopsis,
and Massotia, are re-analyzed. Alvania francescoi new species
(SE Sicily) and A. rosariae new species (SE Sicily and NW
Peloponnesus) are described from Mediterranean Pleistocene.
Galeodinopsis is regarded as the appropriate genus for Oli-
gocene-Recent taxa having a quite conical shell close to that of
some Alvania species and showing Manzonia-like combination
of two microsculptural characters: the pitted surface on the
spiral cords and the arrangement of the roughly prismatic ele-
ments forming numerous and very fine spiral threads. Its type
species, Rissoa tiberiana (previously known from Mediterra-
nean Mio-Pliocene), lives along the tropical W African coasts,
where it is known under the name A. fariai. As suggested by the
oldest record of Galeodinopsis, the European Oligocene Rissoa
duboisi, this genus very likely originated from a pre-Neogene
Alvania group. The syntype of Rissoa prusi, a scarcely known
species (Pleistocene of Rhodes), and material (also from type
locality) of the almost unknown R. cingulata (from Sicily) and
of its close relative, R. tenera (Mediterranean, Atlantic Moroc-
co and Canary Islands), is shown. These three taxa and the type
species of Galeodina and Massotia, are here tentatively con-
sidered as belonging to Alvania sensu lato. With the exception
of A. cingulata, all the discussed species have a multispiral
protoconch. Generally, the protoconchs studied exhibit a sculp-
tural pattern known in other rissoid taxa. Protoconch I of the
type species of Massotia, A. lactea, is characterized by a coarser (1985), listing five Alvania subgenera, provided addi-
sculpture.
Additional Keywords: Rissoidae, taxonomy, Mediterranean-W
Atlantic, Neogene-Recent, new species
INTRODUCTION
The genus Alvania Risso, 1826, comprises one of the
most diversified groups in the caenogastropod family
Rissoidae, especially when considering the tropical east-
Page 19
ern Atlantic and the Mediterranean provinces. They in-
habit a large variety of environments, from littoral to
bathyal, and their geographical distribution is extensive,
including the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indo-Pacific, and
the temperate Australian coasts (Ponder, 1985). Their
stratigraphical distribution might extend back to the Late
Cretaceous, but the first well-established records date to
the early Tertiary (Ponder, 1985). With regard to the rich
Mediterranean and European Tertiary Alvania assem-
blages, some of the most informative analyses are those
of Sacco (1895), Seguenza (1903), Cossmann (1921), Lo-
zouet (1998), Kowalke and Harzhauser (2004), and Chirli
(2006).
Many authorities, e.g. Monterosato (1884), Bucquoy et
al. (1884), Weinkauff (1885), Kobelt (1888), Locard
(1886), Nordsieck (1968, 1972), Jeffreys (1867, 1869),
Pallary (1920), Wenz (1938), Warén (1973, 1974), Gofas
and Warén (1982), Van Aartsen (1982a, 1982b), Moolen-
beek and Hoenselaar (1989, 1998), Van der Linden and
Wagner (1989), Moolenbeek et al. (1991), Van der Lin-
den (1993), Bouchet and Warén (1993), Giannuzzi-
Savelli et al. (1996), Palazzi (1997), Gofas (1999), Ávila
(2000), and Arduino and Arduino (2001), have contrib-
uted to the knowledge of the rich Recent Eastern Atlan-
tic (especially the W Africa and the Macaronesian Prov-
ince) and Mediterranean fauna. Ponder’s rissoid revision
tional perspective to the taxonomy.
My attention is focused here on a relatively large, in-
formal group of species of Alvania sensu lato character-
ized by shells with wide and ovate aperture, lacking an
internal denticulation of the outer lip, and often bearing
varices on a well-developed, inflated body whorl. These
species have been historically assigned to the subgenera
Galeodina Monterosato, 1884, Galeodinopsis Sacco,
1895, and Massotia Bucquoy et al., 1884. This subgeneric
settlement was partially rejected by Ponder (1985), who,