BOUCHET, Fedosov & Puillandre & Herrmann & Kantor & Oliverio & Dgebuadze & Modica & Bouchet, 2018

BOUCHET GEN. NOV.

( FIGS 10D, E, 13)

Type species: Mitra lens W. Wood, 1828 ; OD, herein.

Diagnosis: Shell small to large (20–75 mm), solid, coarsely sculptured, broadly fusiform to about turriform. Protoconch multispiral, rather wide, cyrtoconoid, of about 3.5 smooth, convex whorls. Spire high; suture deeply impressed. Teleoconch whorls flattened to strongly convex or distinctly shouldered. Sculpture of slightly prosocline, wide and broadly spaced axial folds, or rather dense ribs; axials overridden by spiral cords which are typically wide and flattened, but may be narrow and elevated. Rounded or spirally elongated beads sometimes present at the intersection of spiral and axial sculptural elements. Siphonal canal rather short, stout, with weak or no fasciole. Siphonal notch shallow or indistinct. Outer aperture lip evenly convex, or its adapical half about straight, and abapical half strongly convex. Inner aperture lip with three to four strong columellar folds, adapicalmost strongest. Shell dull, light to dark brown, sometimes with well-developed periostracum. Radula with broad laterals, bearing robust, short and blunt cusps on their inner portion, turning gradually to fine serration on outer half ( Fig. 10D, E). Rachidian with robust, very short and deeply rooted cusps, their tips merely reaching anterior margin of adjacent tooth base.

Species included: Neotiara crenata (Broderip, 1836) 3 comb. nov., N. fultoni (E. A. Smith, 1892) 3 comb. nov., N. gausapata (Reeve, 1845) 3 comb.nov., N. inca (d’Orbigny, 1841) 3 comb. nov., N. lens (Wood, 1828) 1 comb. nov., N. muricata (Broderip, 1836) 3 comb. nov., N. nodulosa (Gmelin, 1791) 1 comb. nov., N. pallida (Nowell-Usticke, 1959) 3 comb. nov., N. rupicola (Reeve, 1844) 3 comb. nov., N. sphoni (Shasky & Campbell, 1964) 3 comb. nov.

Etymology: The name refers to the now disused name Tiara Swainson, 1831 , one of the genera first established in what later became the family Costellariidae .

Remarks: According to Cernohorsky (1976: 454), the type of M. lens , which used to be in Mawe’s collection, can no longer be traced. In order to fix the identity of the species and of the genus Neotiara gen. nov., we here designate our sequenced specimen BAU00800 from Panama City, Panama, measuring 40.0 × 15.5 mm ( Fig. 13A), as neotype of M. lens, MNHN IM-2000-33145.

As circumscribed here, the genus Neotiara can be recognized among New World Mitridae primarily by the well developed, typically coarse sculpture with distinct axial elements. Other Caribbean and Panamic Mitridae of the genera Isara , Subcancilla , Probata and Atrimitra lack axial sculpture, and the spiral elements are either lacking as well, or represented by fine cords. As indicated by our phylogenetic analysis, the Panamic Neotiara lens and N. aff. inca , and the Caribbean N. nodulosa are closely related and Neotiara is at present the only mitrid genus with both Pacific and Atlantic species. Although only three species are included in our phylogenetic analysis, we classify all heavily sculptured American mitrids in Neotiara gen. nov.