Bentharca celeris, Simone, 2024

Genus Bentharca Verrill & Bush, 1898 View in CoL Bentharca celeris new species

( Fig. 47 View Figure 47 ) https://zoobank.org/ 742020AF-4379-4C29-B1AA-4F0B4BC9F78A

Types: Holotype MZSP 166556 View Materials , shell . Paratypes: MZSP 104210 View Materials , 2 View Materials shells, MNHN-IM-2000-39814,1 shell from type locality. BRAZIL. Espírito Santo ; off Linhares, 20°43.7′S 31°56.7′W, 944-945 m, MZSP 104139 View Materials , 1 View Materials valve, ( R. V. Marión-Dufresne col., MD55 sta. DC49, 15.v.1987) GoogleMaps .

Type locality: BRAZIL. Espírito Santo ; off Linhares, Vitória-Trindade submarine mountain chain, 20°20.9′S 36°19′W, 1,417-1,440 m [ R. V. Marión-Dufresne col., MD55 sta. CP32, 15.v.1987] GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis: SE Brazilian species with very oblique, elongated outline. Sculpture delicate, uniform reticulate. Lunula very narrow and short. Hinge with very perpendicular anterior teeth; posterior teeth connected in outer edges.

Description: Shell of ~ 10 mm, very oblique – with main carina ~35° in relation to tinge line; length ~70% of height; maximum inflation ~40% of length ( Fig. 47A, I View Figure 47 ). Color whitish ( Fig. 47 View Figure 47 H-J), yellowish ( Fig. 47 View Figure 47 K-L) to pale beige ( Fig. 47 View Figure 47 A-E); periostracum wanting. Both valves symmetric. Umbones slightly prominent, bluntly point- ed, elevating ~5% shell height beyond hinge; narrowly separated from each other, located in posterior end of anterior third of hinge. Lunule narrow, concave, ~10% of shell width, ~37% of shell length ( Fig. 47A, I View Figure 47 ). Dorsal edge straight; anterior edge bluntly pointed with dorsal edge, ~ ⅓ size of posterior edge; ventral edge ample on posterior half, abruptly ascendent in anterior half; posterior edge straight, with wide, blunt ventro-posterior angulation with ventral edge. Hinge ( Fig. 47D, E, K View Figure 47 ) with anterior ~¼ possessing 5-6 small, uniform-sized, rather perpendicular, aligned teeth; succeeded by ~¼ edentelous, in region adjacent to umbones; posterior half with 6-7 elongated, very oblique, successive low teeth, all of them connected with each other in their outer end by longitudinal, lateral, low fold ( Fig. 47F, G View Figure 47 ). Inner surface white, glossy; muscle scars of difficult delimitation; scars of anterior and posterior adductor muscles rounded, located below both hinge ends; posterior scar slightly larger than anterior scar.

Etymology: The specific epithet is derived from the Latin celer, meaning velocity, an allusion to the elongated shape of the shell.

Distribution: So far endemic from off Espírito Santo coast, near Vitória-Trindade submarine mountain chain.