Raphitoma maculosa, Høisaeter, 2016

Raphitoma maculosa n.sp.

Figures 1C View Figure 1 , 2E View Figure 2 , 3C and 4 - 6

h t t p: / / z o o b a n k.o r g / 1 A 0 C 5 3 8 2 -5 B C 7 - 4 E D E -8 8 0 6 - 99054F8A5071

Murex reticulatus Renier, 1804 (Suppressed by ICZN) Defrancia reticulata, Renier - Jeffreys 1867 View in CoL ; Friele 1874 Clathurella reticulata, Ren. - G.O. Sars 1878

Clathurella reticulata, Brocc. - Marshall 1912

Raphitoma echinata View in CoL - sensuSmith & Heppell 1991; Heppell et al. 1997; Høisaeter 2009, non Brocchi, 1814.

Raphitoma asperrima ( Brown, 1827) - Fretter & Graham 1985 [in part]; Graham 1988 [in part];

Philbertia asperrima ( Brown, 1827) - Hubendick & Warén 1976 [in part]; Høisaeter 1986

Type material. Holotype ZMBN 107134 View Materials .

Type locality. Liholmsrennen, Raunefjorden , Hordaland county, 60°18’N, 05°09’E GoogleMaps ; 70–90 m.

Etymology. From Latin macula, spot, stain, mark. Referring to the white spots sprinkled all over the head-foot complex.

Material examined. One specimen (holotype) (70-90 m) and one shell (120- 100 m) from Raunefjorden , western Norway, and one specimen (70 m) and one shell (80- 60 m) from northern Norway. A shell from Bergen ( ZMBN 16639 View Materials ) and one from Jondal, Hardanger, 50-120 m ( ZMBN 15527 View Materials ) .

Description. (Based mainly on the holotype, the specimen studied alive, from Liholmsrennen, Raunefjorden, Figures 4 View Figure 4 and 5). Max size 10.8 mm (Figure 6A). Shell fairly thick and opaque; height 2.27 to 2.47 times the diameter; apical angle 48°. Body whorl 65–69 % of total shell height. Shell colour, judging from the specimen in Figure 5 (photographed alive), with ground colour light yellowish white, with most spiral cords reddish brown on the nodules, much lighter brown on the cords between ribs. Spiral cords no. 5 and 6 from the top on the body whorl much lighter coloured than the rest. The shell has a more ‘spotted’ appearance than the other species in the genus. Protoconch (Figures 3C and 4) with 3 to 3 ½ whorls, with a coarse decussate grid and ending in a weak spiral keel. Protoconch W/L: 0.96. Protoconch colour milk chocolate brown. The 7.2 mm long specimen has four and a half teleoconch, convex whorls, with a deep and distinct suture. Sculpture consisting of numerous, slightly prosocline axial ribs crossed by spiral cords. Five or six narrow cords on penultimate whorl. The narrow axial ribs create, together with the strong spiral cords, a pattern of deep trapezoid pits wider than high ( Figure 1C View Figure 1 ). Aperture narrow with a long and narrow siphonal canal, with eight spiral cords below ‘bend’ in siphonal canal (counted on dorsal side of the shell). Microsculpture not very distinct but apparently somewhat diffuse, small irregular oblong granules ( Figure 4 View Figure 4 ).

Foot with numerous bright white spots on a more diffuse gray-white background (Figure 5). The siphon extends a long distance in front of the siphonal canal, and appears somewhat bulb-shaped in front with 30 to 40 opaque white spots on the slightly grayish background.

Variability. The variability of the sculpture is well illustrated in Figure 6B and C, depicting two shells from northern Norway. The empty shell from Andfjorden (Figure 6B) has a more coarse sculpture with fewer axial ribs and fewer and stronger spiral cords than the specimen from Hjartøy just west of Bodø (Figure 6C). The available material (five shells, of which three are rather worn) does not permit a more detailed description of the shell variability.

Distribution. In Norway reported (as R. reticulata ) as rare from narrow inlets in the archipelago north of Bergen (around 60°35’N) ( Friele 1874). Not found by Norman (1879). In my large material of shells of Raphitoma s.l. from most of the Norwegian coast, only two specimens and two shells may reasonably be referred to this species. It is thus presumably distributed from Hardangerfjorden south of Bergen to Andfjorden (69°17’N, 60-80 m; only empty shell found). The specimen from Hjartøy in Nordland (67°18’N, 60 m) indicates that it is still (1976) present in northern Norway. The distribution outside Norway is unknown because of possible confusion with R. cf. echinata (see below).

Remarks. This species was called Raphitoma echinata ( Brocchi, 1814) in Høisaeter (2009), based on the assumption that it was conspecific with the species given this name in several fairly recent check-lists from the British Isles (e.g. Smith & Heppell 1991, Heppell et al. 1997). The species is called Raphitoma asperrima ( Brown, 1827) in other North European identification guides ( Hubendick & Warén 1976, Fretter & Graham 1985, Graham 1988). The name ‘ asperrima’ was first used for a ‘variety’ of R. purpurea ( Montagu, 1803) by Forbes & Hanley (1853), but according to Jeffreys (1867:318), the type of Brown’s Fusus asperrimus was a shell of Trophonopsis muricatus ( Montagu, 1803) . This synonymy I find reasonable, based on the drawing in Brown (1827). This synonymy is also accepted in WoRMS ( Gofas 2015a).

The name R. echinata ( Brocchi, 1814) for a British species was introduced indirectly by Jeffreys (1867), as he picked the oldest ( Murex reticulatus ) of several names for a complex of Mediterranean shells that he regarded as synonyms (“It is… M. echinatus of Brocchi, Pleurotoma Cordieri of Payraudeau, P. rude of Scacchi =[ Raphitoma pupoides ( Monterosato, 1884) ]”). Murex reticulatus Renieri, 1804 , was suppressed by ICZN (Opinion 316 Dec. 17, 1954) and Murex echinatus Brocchi, 1814 , based on a fossil, was (on the authority of Brocchi 1814 and Monterosato 1884) introduced as a subjective synonym of the unavailable M. reticulatus . Whether the Mediterranean R. echinata is really conspecific with the British species discussed by Jeffreys, is impossible to verify until the Mediterranean species complex to which R. echinata belongs is properly revised.

Jeffreys had, however, described the British species already in 1847 under the name Pleurotoma scabrum (“I described the present species ( D. reticulata Renier ) as P. scabrum under the impression that it was distinct from the Mediterranean shell and not merely a variety”). A photograph of a syntype of this species is presented in Warén (1980, Pl. 6, Fig. 12 View Figure 12 ). Unfortunately this photograph is too small to reveal any details of the sculpture of the shell. One important detail visible is the short siphonal canal, shorter than in my specimens of R. maculosa . Combined with the description in Jeffreys (1847) and the more detailed one (for D. reticulata ) in Jeffreys (1867) it is anyway possible to compare the British species with my Norwegian specimens. In 1847, Jeffreys compared his P. scabrum with R. linearis : “It differs from Pl. lineare in the volutions being more tapering, and generally in its more slender form, and in the ribs and transverse striae being sharper and more elevated, giving the shell a scabrous appearance.” Although it cannot be completely excluded that Jeffreys’ P. scabrum is conspecific with R. maculosa n.sp., the fact that scabrum has not been used since Jeffreys listed it as a synonym of R. reticulata in 1867, argues for rejecting the name as a nomen oblitum according to the rules in ICZN.

A complicating factor is the presence in British waters of another species belonging to the same species complex, but never having been formally accepted as a separate species. This species is represented in my material by a single 11.1 mm long shell from 138 m, near Gullfaks oil field 61°05’N, on the western slope of the Norwegian Trench ( Figure 7 View Figure 7 ). Its main difference from R. maculosa , in addition to the very spiky ‘nodules’ is the smooth, almost satiny surface between the spiral cords, only interrupted by lines of growth. A similar looking shell from Shetland is illustrated in Fretter & Graham (1985) under the name R. asperrima (Brown) . I suspect, based on the drawing in combination with their detailed description that Fretter & Graham actually used both specimens of R. maculosa n.sp. and the species illustrated in Figure 7 View Figure 7 as basis for their R. asperrima . As Fusus asperrima Brown is accepted as a synonym of Trophonopsis muricatus (see above), the shell shown in Figure 7 View Figure 7 , needs another name. It might be a British form of R. echinata , but as this subgroup of Mediterranean Raphitoma [ R. echinata , R. cordieri and R. horrida ( Monterosato, 1884) ] are yet to be properly revised, and their shell surface judging from available illustrations on the internet, is more porcellaneous than satiny, it might be better to choose a name based on British material. R. formosa ( Jeffreys, 1867) is a candidate, but I feel it prudent to rather emphasize its similarity to one of several recent species of the Mediterranean R. echinata group (e.g. Gofas et al. 2011) as R. cf. echinata .