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

KANTOR & BOUCHET GEN. NOV.

( FIGS 27, 28A)

Type species: Conoelix punctatus Swainson, 1821 ; OD, herein.

Diagnosis: Shell small (10–20 mm), conical, uniformly pale or with dark tip of siphonal canal. Protoconch pointed multispiral, narrowly conical, dark. Suture distinct, impressed. Spire very short, less than 20% of total shell height, conical or distinctly acuminate, starting with several subcylindrical whorls. Last adult whorl very tall, sculptured with regular, distinctly punctate, spiral grooves. Siphonal notch shallow or moderately deep. Aperture very tall and narrow, slit-like. Outer aperture lip thick, flattened, smooth inside; inner lip with five fine oblique folds situated on abapical portion of columella. Radula triserial; rachidian with six cusps, paired central cusps greatly exceeding those situated laterally ( Fig. 28A). Lateral teeth with five cusps, second cusp from rachidian very robust, notably exceeding the others.

Distribution: Indo-Pacific, intertidal and upper subtidal depths, on sand patches and in reef crevices.

Species included: Imbricariopsis conovula (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) 2 comb. nov., I. punctata (Swainson, 1821) 1 comb. nov., I. vanikorensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) 2 comb. nov.,? I. carbonacea (Hinds, 1844) 3 comb. nov.

Etymology: The name Imbricariopsis reflects the resemblance of the species in this newly recognized lineage with the type species of Imbricaria , I. conularis , that has long distracted mitrid taxonomists. Gender feminine.

Remarks: Few mitrids are characterized by an almost involute conical shell, and these were formerly allocated to either Imbricaria or Pterygia . However, we found Imbricaria as traditionally construed to be paraphyletic, with I. punctata forming a lineage of its own, not closely related to I. conularis . Although a single species has been sequenced, we hypothesize a close relationship between I. punctata , I. conovula and I. vanikorensis , largely based on shell characters. Imbricariopsis gen. nov., as we circumscribe it, constitutes a rather distinctive group of small shallow-water mitrids: species of Imbricariopsis can be recognized by conical, weakly sculptured, or not sculptured at all, pale shells with a minute, pointed apex (that is much lower than in I. conularis ). The radulae of the three species that we assign to Imbricariopsis gen. nov. were illustrated by Cernohorsky (1970) and are again figured here; all three share the same general morphology of lateral radular teeth, with one robust major and several minor cusps situated on both sides of the major one.