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J
OU
R
NAL
OF
CO
NC
H
OLOGY
(2016), V
oL
.42,
No
.6
401
THE STUDY CASE OF PLEUROBRANCHUS LOWEI WATSON,
1897 (GASTROPODA: NUDIPLEURA: PLEUROBRANCHIDAE),
INDEED A SPECIES OF HALIOTINELLA (GASTROPODA:
NATICIDAE) FROM THE EASTERN ATLANTIC
LEOPOLDO
MoRo1,
JE
SUS
0RTEA
2 & MANUEL
CABALL
ER3,4
1Servicio de Biodiversidad, Gobierno
de
Canarias,
S/C
de
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
2Departamento de Biologia
de
Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo,
Cl
Catedratico Rodrigo Urfa
s/n.
33071,
Oviedo, Spain
3
Museum
National d'Histoire Naturelle,
55
rue
de
Buffon, 75005 Paris, France.
4Centro
de
Oceanologfa y
Es
tudios Antarticos. Instituto Venezolano
de
Investigaciones Cientificas. Ctra. Panamericana Km
11,
Miranda, Venezuela.
Abs
tra
ct Pleurobranchus lowei
Wnt
so
11
,
1897
is n
pleurobrn11c/
1id
ga
s
tropod
tlr
nt
wns
de
sc
ribed
from
Mndeirn
Is
ln11d
n11d
nfterwnrd
s
recorded
in
tire
Cnnnry
Is
land
s.
It
s
origi11nl
description
wns
not
ve
ry
detailed,
pe
rlrnp
s
beca
u
se
it
wns
bn
sed
0
11
two
empty s
ir
e
/l
s,
o
ne
of
tlr
e111
brok
e
n.
The
val
id
ity
n11d
th
e
tnxo110111ic
stntus of
P.
lowei
lin
ve
bee11
di
s
cu
sse
d
by
differe11t
n11tli
or
s,
but
1111til
recently,
th
e
nctun
l
npp
enrn
nce
of
th
e syntype of
tire
spec
i
es
wn
s only
known
by
n
drnwi11g.
Th
e nnti
ci
d
ge
11u
s Haliotinella
So
u
ve
rbie
,
1875
is
composed
of
111
e
diu111
si
ze
d s
nnil
s
witlr
flntte
11
ed
11nil
-s
linped
she
ll
s.
There
nre
tw
o
vn
l
id
s
peci
es
i11
th
e
world:
Haliotinella montrouzieri
Souverbie,
187
5,
from
New
Cnledonin,
nnd
Haliotinella patinaria
Guppy,
1876
,
from
tire
L
esse
r Antilles. As
in
tir
e
pre
v
iou
s cn
se,
the
tnxono111ic
po
s
ition
of
the
gen
us Haliotinella
!in
s
bee11
s
ubje
ct
to
so
me
c
ontro
ve
rsy gi
ve
11
that
seve
ral
n11t/10r
s
co
ns
id
e
red
flint
th
e she
lls
where
inde
ed she
ll
s of
Pleurobrnn
c
liidn
e. In this
pnpe1
~
tir
e s
yno11y111y
of
P.
lowei is
propo
se
d
nfter
the
co111pnr
i
so11
of
th
e type s
pe
c
im
ens
of
both
spec
i
es
nnd
the
observa
ti
on
of
sn
111pl
es
of
H. patinaria
fro
m
tir
e
Cn11nry
Is
land
s
nnd
the
Cnribbenn.
Key
words
Pleurobranchus lowei, synonymy, Haliotinella patinaria,
controver
s
ial
species,
Canary
Is
land
s.
INTRODUCTION
Pleurobranchus
lowei
Watson, 1897 is a species
belonging to the family Pleurobranchidae Gray,
1827, that
was
described from Abra
Bay,
Madeira
Island, bas
ed
on
two
shells (Watson, 1897: 240-
241, fig. 19-9) (Fig. 1 A-B), one
of
them
broken.
Afterwards, Nobre (1937) recorded
P.
low
ei
from
Madeira,
and
Nordsieck & Garcia-Talavera
(1979) from
Mad
eira
and/
or
the
Canary
Islands
(not specified), providing the latter
authors
an
illustration almost identical
to
the iconotype of
Watson
(1897:
Fig. 1 A). Malaquias (2004)
stud-
ied
the species described
by
the reverend Robert
Boog Watson,
but
did
not
find the type material
of
P.
lowei.
Cervera
et
al.
(1988; 2006),
and
Segers
et
al.
(2009b) included the species
in
their respec-
tive catalogues,
and
reflect the previous records
in Madeira.
Ortea
et
al.
(2014)
proposed
the
synonymy
of
P.
low
ei
with
Berthellina
edwardsi
(Vayssiere, 1896),
described from the Azores Islands
and
common
in Madeira,
due
to the similarities
with
th
e shell
illustrated by Watson (1897). Contemporaneously,
Contact author : manuelcaballergutierrez@hotmail.com
Goodheart
et
al.
(2015a: 34, Table
6)
consider the
description of
P.
low
ei really incomplete and the
species unidentifiabl
e.
Following Ortea
et
al.
(2014), Alvim & Dias Pimenta (2015) consider
P.
lowei
a junior
synonym
of
B.
edwards
i. The
same
year, Goodheart
et
al.
(2015b) published an
addendum
of their
pre
vious work, discussi
ng
the synonymy
proposed
by
Ortea
et
al.
(2014)
and
considering
P.
lowei
an
unid
entifiable spe-
cies
of
Pleurobranchus
Cuvier, 1804. However, the
latter authors
did
not
consider the publication
of
Segers
et
al.
(2009), in which a ventral photo of
the syntype of the species held
in
the National
Museum
of Wales (Melvill-Tomlin Collection:
n° NMW.1955.158),
was
provided for the first
tim
e (
same
specimen as
in
Fig. 1
B).
T
he
naticid
genus
Haliotinella
Souverbie, 1875
is composed
of
medium
sized snails
with
flat-
tened nail-shaped shells. The type species of
the genus,
Haliotinella
montrouzieri Souverbie,
1875,
was
described
fr
om
New
Caledonia (in
Souverbie &
Montrouzie1~
1875). Later,
Guppy
(1876) described a second species,
Haliotinella
patinaria
Guppy, 1876, based
on
a shell collected
in
the
Lesser Antilles, illustrated
by
Guppy
(1878)
402
M
ORO
ET
AL
Figure 1
Pl
e
11robranclws
l
owei
Watson,
1897:
a-b;
a Iconotype (Watson, 1897); b Syntype 9mm long, NMW
1955.
158.
24404. c
Berthe/linn
q11ndride11
s (Morch,
1863):
She
ll
(7.4mm long) from Gu
ade
loupe
on
ventral
and
dor-
sal views. d
Bert/1
e
/linn
e
dwnrds
ii
(Vayssiere, 1897): She
ll
(3
.
lmm
lon
g)
from
th
e Canaries on ventral
and
dor-
sal views. e
Ple11robrn11cl111s
c
ro
ssei
Vayssiere,
1896:
She
ll
(4
.8mm long) from the Canaries
on
ventral and dorsal
views.
Hnliotinelln
pntinnrin
G
upp
y,
1976:
f-1
; f Shell i
ll
ustrated by Gu
ppy
(1978);
g Broken syntype 18.5mm long,
MNHN-2000-5223; h Detail of the protoconch of the sy
nt
ype, MNHN-2000-5223; I She
ll
(9.9mm lon
g)
from the
Canaries
on
ventral
and
dorsal views (both co
urt
esy of Gustavo Perez-Dionis Molina); j Shell (8.6mm long) from
the Canaries
on
ven
tr
al,
do
rsal and lateral views; k She
ll
(8mm long) from
th
e Bahamas
on
ventral a
nd
dorsal
views (courtesy of Colin Redfern); l Shell (9mm long) from Cuba
on
dorsal view (courtesy of Jose Espinosa); m
Details of the she
ll
and
the preserved specimen (42mm long) illu
st
rat
ed
by Marcus & Marcus
(1965).
(Fig. 1 F-H).
The
taxonomic position
of
the
genus
Haliotinella
has
been
subject to some contro-
versy; first March (1876),
and
later other
authors
(Fischer, 1887; Pilsbry, 1896), considered that the
shells where
indeed
shells of Pleurobranchidae
(Fig. 1 C-E). Even
Guppy
(1876),
who
placed
Haliotinella
in the family Naticidae Guilding,
1834, pointed
out
the resemblance of the shell
with
that of
Pleurobrnnchus.
During the course of a regular biodiversity
survey
sampling
in
the South West
of
Tenerife
Island (Canary Islands, Spain), 2 pleurobranchid-
like shells were
found
in
a
sand
bottom
at
20m
depth. These shells, deposited in Gustavo Perez
Dionis Collections,
were
almost identical to the
types of
P.
lowei
illustrated
by
Watson (1897)
and
Segers
et
al.
(2009). A more
indepth
study
dem-
onstrated that they were
not
members
of
the
Pleurobranchidae
but
of the
genus
Haliotinella,
an
aberrant form
within
the family Naticidae.
In this
pape1~
the
synonymy
of
P.
lowei
with
H.
patinaria
is proposed after the comparison of the
types of
both
species
with
specimens from the
Caribbean,
and
others from the
Canary
Islands
initially
determined
as
P.
lowei.
MATERIAL
AND
METHODS
The specimens were obtained
by
dredging
in
a
sand
bottom
in the South West of Tenerife
(28
°0'23.07"N 16°42'50.41"W),
Canary
Islands,
Spain,
at
20m depth. They were found
in
a
sand
sample, examined
by
hand
using
an
Olympus
SZ16 stereomicroscope. A
Nikon
0300
camera
with
extension tubes
was
used
to take photo-
graphs of the shells that
were
preserved dry.
Abbreviations: GPO -Gustavo Perez Dionis
Malacological Collections, Santa
Cruz
de
Tenerife,
Tenerife,
Canary
Islands, Spain; JEMC -Jose
Espinosa Malacological Collections,
Havana,
Cuba;
MNHN
-
Museum
national d'Histoire
Naturelle, 55 rue Buffon, Paris, France;
NMW
-
Amgueddfa
Cymru
National
Museum
of
Wales,
Cathays Park Cardiff, CFlO 3NP,
UK
SYSTEMATICS
Family Naticidae Guilding, 1834
Genus
Haliotinella
Souverbie, 1875
Type species:
Haliotin
e
lla
montrou
z
ieri
Souverbie,
1875,
by
monotypy.
PL
EU
I
WBRANC
HU
S LOWE/ SYNONYM
OF
H AL/OT/NELLA
PATI
NARIA 403
Haliotinella
patinaria
Guppy, 1876
(Fig. 1 F-M)
Haliotinella
patinaria
Guppy,
1876:
Journal
de
Conchyliologie
24
(ser. 3,
16):
161-163. Type
locality: Saint Kitts Islands, Leeward Islands,
Caribbean Sea.
Material
examined
Syntype (broken), 18.Smm
long (shell), collected at Saint Kitts Islands,
Leeward Islands, preserved
in
MNHN
(IM-2000-
5223). 1 specimen
9mm
long (shell), collected in
Havana,
Cuba, JEMC collections. 2 specimens 9.9
and
8.6mm long (shells), collected in the South
West
of
Tenerife
(28
°0'23.07"N 16°42'50.41"W),
Canary
Islands, Spain, 20m depth, GPO
collections.
Body
and
internal
anatomy
See Marcus & Marcus
(1965).
Shell
External, thin, fragile, translucent white,
slightly calcified, elongate, flattened, nail-shaped
(Fig. 1 F-L). Surface covered
by
a whitish perio-
stracum
and
ornamented
with
growth striae (Fig.
1 J). Aperture almost as long as the shell. Interior
smooth
and
glossy. Rear posterior edge of the
aperture forms a callus
and
does
not
extend over
the apex. Edge smooth. Columella callused, con-
cave, elbow-shaped, folded over beneath apex,
partly
covering small umbilicus. Protoconch 2
and
a half whorls, glossy
and
smooth, orange
in first whorl, becoming translucent before
teleoconch.
Geographic
range
Amphiatlantic: Caribbean
and
Macaronesic Islands (Canaries
and
Madeira).
DISCUSSION
Ortea
et
al.
(2014) established the differences
between the 3 genera
of
Pleurobranchidae pre-
sent
in
the Canary Islands using, among other
characters, the
presence/
absence
and
the type
of
striae
on
th
e internal shell. These authors also
stated that within each genus there are
two
kinds
of shells, the scraper-shaped (Fig. 1
E)
and
those
with
parallel sides (Fig.
lC-0).
The flattened
nail-shaped shells
of
the species of
Haliotinella
show
a reasonable general resemblance to the
later type of Pleurobranchidae; may be the reason
for the initial controversy
on
the taxonomic posi-
tion
of
the genus.
On
a closer look, the species
404
MORO
ET
AL
of
Hnliotinelln
bear
a proportionally bigger
pro
-
toconch (naticid-lik
e:
Fig. 1 H,
K)
than these
of Pleurobranc
hi
ae, never totally
embedded
by
the teleoco
nch
(usually can be isolated a
nd
detached), w
ith
a callused rear
po
sterior e
dg
e of
the aperture
th
at does
not
extend over
th
e apex,
and
a callused, elbo
w-shaped
columella, folded
over beneath apex. In a
dditi
on, the shells of
Pleurobranc
hida
e are usually
wider
and
usually
have the rear posterior edge of the aperture that
may exte
nd
to form a
sma
ll "wing", distinct from
Hnliotinelln.
Marcus & Marcus (1965) found
on
e spec
im
en
of
Hnliotinelln
pntinnrin
digging in
th
e
mud
of a
Thnlnssin
meadow
in Florida. They gave stability
to the genus
Hnliotinelln
within the Naticidae by
de
scribing
and
illustrating the soft parts of
H.
pntinnrin
(Fig. 1 M).
The illustrations of
Guppy
(1878) (Fig. 1
F)
and
Watson (1897) (Fig. 1
A)
are almost
id
entical, the
differences observed;
Guppy's
(1876;
1878)
she
ll
slightly
mor
e calluse
d,
with
concave sides, are
probably
due
to intraspecific variability
and
the
difference of siz
e.
On
the other
hand
, Re
df
ern
(201
3) illustrates seve
ral
shells
of
H.
pntinnria
from Bahamas (Fig. 1
K)
that s
how
an
almost
identical shell architecture to
th
e shells of similar
size collected in M
ade
ira a
nd
th
e Ca
nar
y Is
land
s.
Based on this ev
id
ence, the
sy
non
ymy
of
P.
lowei
with
H.
pntinnrin
is
propo
sed, a
nd
th
e
di
s-
tribution of
th
e latter species is
widened
from the
Caribb
ean
to the Eastern Atlantic.
A CKNOWLEDGEM
EN
TS
To
our
colleagues
and
friends Jose
Es
pino
sa Saez
(Instituto
de
Oceanologia de Cuba), G
ustav
o
Perez-Dionis Molina
and
Colin Re
df
e
rn
for
th
eir
selfless collaboration
and
the cession of the speci-
mens
and/
or
the images
of
Hnliotinelln
patinarin
from Cuba,
Canary
Is
land
s
an
d Bahamas respec-
ti
vel
y.
To
MNHN
and
th
e project E-RECOLNAT:
ANR-11-INBS-0004, for
the
photos
of the syn-
type of
H.
patinnria.
To
Harriet Wood, from
th
e
Amgueddfa
Cymru
National
Mu
se
um
of
Wales,
for the
photos
of the sy
ntyp
e
of
P.
lowei.
R
EFE
RENCES
ALV
IM
J &
DI
AS
PIME
N
TA
A 2015
Taxonomic
review
of
Berthel/n
an
d
Berthellinn
(Gastropoda:
Pleurobranchoidea)
from
Brazil, w
ith
d
escri
ption
of
two
n
ew
sp eci
es
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ia
32(6): 497-531.
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co
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as
isl
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de
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lboran
I
berus,
s
upplem
en
t 1:
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hy
li
olog
ie
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Savy,
Paris,
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GOODH
E
ART
J,
CA
MA
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O-GAR
C
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PAD
U
LA
V,
SC
HR
ODL
M,
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L, GOS
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Sys
te
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nd
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Pl
eur
obrnncl
lll
s
C
uvi
e1~
1804,
sea
s
lu
gs
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N
udipleura:
Pleurobranchidae)
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oological
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of
th
e Linnenn
Society 174 (2):
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Gooo
H
EART
J,
CA
MACHO-GAR
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ADULA
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Systematics
an
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bioge
ogra
ph
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of
Pleurobrnnc/111
s
Cuv
ie
r,
1804
sea
s
lug
s
(Heterobranchus:
N
udipl
eu
ra
:
Pl
e
urobran
c
hida
e)
Addend11111,
Zoological
Journal of
t/1
e Linnean Society
174
(3): 649-649.
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RJL 1876 S
ur
!'
ex
ist
ence
du
genre
Haliotine
lla
aux
Antilles.
Journ
al
de
Co
n
c/1yliologie
24 (ser. 3, 16):
161- 163.
GUPPY
RJL 1878
No
te
sur
I'Haliotinella
pntinarfn
et
s
ur
quelques
mollusques
des
Antill
es
J
ou
rnal
de
Con
c
hyliologie
26 (ser.
3,
18): 321-325.
MARCUS
Ev
& M
ARCUS
ER
196
5
On
H
nl
iotine
lln
pa
tinn
r
ia
(Gastropoda:
Na
tic
id
e) Bulletin
of
Mar
in
e
Sc
ien
ce
15
(1): 211-215.
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S
MAE
2004
The
opisthobranch
mollu
scs
d
esc
rib
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by
th
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Reverend
Robert
Boog
Watson
from
th
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Madeira
archipelago
(northeast
A
tlantic
,
Portugal)
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nal
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CH
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1876
Description
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especes
nou
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ll
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Journal
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Conchy
liol
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r.
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368-3
74.
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Moluscos
Testaceos
Marinhos
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Arquipelago
da
Mad
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ira
Me1116rins
e
Es
tu
do
s
do
Mus
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