Heros Virginie

• Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle

Three new species of the genus Leptotrophon Houart, 1995 are described from New Caledonia and compared with nine species, all from the New Caledonia area.

The Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), founded in 1793 by the French Revolution, was the first public institution specifically established to conserve natural history specimens, and Lamarck was among its first appointed professors. Although little of the pre-Revolution royal specimens remain, the collections go back to pre-Linnean author...

Fifteen species of Muricidae are listed from Papua New Guinea. Six new deep water species are described: Conchatalos samadiae spec. nov., Nipponotrophon barbarae spec. nov., Scabrotrophon manai spec. nov., Scabrotrophon maranii spec. nov., Scabrotrophon puillandrei spec. nov., Scabrotrophon maestratii spec. nov. Eight other species listed are new r...

A catalogue of types of Hawaiian land and freshwater snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) deposited in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Paris, was recently published in Zoosystema. Type material of an additional species, Lymnaea affinis Souleyet, 1852, has since been found and is here documented and a lectotype designated.

Pacific island land snail faunas are among the most threatened faunas in the world, having suffered a higher rate of extinction than any other major animal group. The Hawaiian land snails are among the most species rich and most severely impacted of these faunas, yet the current status of most of the Hawaiian species is unknown. Most of the major t...

Ten new species of Muricidae Rafinesque, 1815 are described from material collected during expeditions in Madagascar. Five species are described from the Extreme South: Vokesimurex rectaspira n. sp., Timbellus goniodes n. sp., Flexopteron akainakares n. sp., Murexsul mananteninaensis n. sp. and Typhinellus constrictus n. sp.; four from the Northwes...

The extreme south of Madagascar is noted for the endemism of its marine biota, notably molluscs. Six new species of Muricidae Rafinesque, 1815 are described in the present paper; three in the subfamily Muricinae Rafinesque, 1815: Chicoreus (Triplex) kantori n. sp., Naquetia manwaii n. sp. and Dermomurex (Dermomurex) charlesi n. sp.; two in the subf...

The caenogastropod family Ampullariidae Gray, 1824 is a family of freshwater snails predominantly distributed in humid tropical and sub-tropical habitats in Africa, South and Central America and Asia. They include the largest of all freshwater snails and frequently constitute a major portion of the native freshwater mollusc faunas of these regions....

Fourteen species of Muricidae referable to the (sub)genera Promurex Ponder & Vokes, 1988, Pygmaepterys Vokes, 1978, Murexsul lredale, 1915, Pazinotus Vokes, 1970, Prototyphis Ponder, 1972, Ponderia Houart, 1986, Gemixystus Iredale, 1929, Leptotrophon Houart, 1995 and Scabrotrophon McLean, 1996 are reported from New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands an...

Syntypes of fourspecies of bivalve molluscs — Nucula laternaria Valenciennes, 1846; Nucula amygdalea Valenciennes, 1846; and Nucula oeolica Valenciennes, 1846, all Yoldiidae; and Cardium californiense Deshayes, 1839, Cardiidae — collected from Kamchatka during the historic voyage of the Vénus (1836–1839), are illustrated and their taxonomic status...

The Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, formerly ORSTOM) and Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) launched in the early 1980s a suite of oceanographic expeditions to sample the deep-water benthos of the tropical South and West Pacific, with emphasis on the 100-1,500 m bathymetric zone. This paper reviews the development of this...

The Rapa 2002 work shop has permitted a reevaluation of the biodiversity of the molluscan fauna at the extreme limit of the tropical Indo-West Pacific biogeographic Province. In Rapa, the most isolated island of the Austral group, the real number of marine molluscan species probably exceeds 600. The occurrence of emblematic species from the Indo-We...

Extended abstract The RAPA 2002 workshop formed part of a concerted research program "Fauna and Flora of Rapa" involving Université de Polynésie Française, EPHE, IRD and MNHN. It took place between October 27 and December 10, 2002. Our team consisted of 8 participants (out of a total of 14), which resulted in a total of 240 day-persons in the field...

Earlier studies in the tropical Indo-Pacific have grossly underestimated the richness of macrofauna species at spatial scales relevant to conservation and management as a result of insufficient collecting and sorting effort. A massive collecting effort involving 400 day-persons at 42 discrete stations on a 295-km2 site on the west coast of New Cale...

Three hundred and fifty seven lots of Recent and certain fossil opisthobranch mollusc type-specimens deposited in the Laboratoire des Invertébrés Marins et Malacogie of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) are catalogued by original binomen and arranged alphabetically within families. Most of the fossil type specimens are housed in the L...