Conopleura, Hinds, 1844

Nappo, Andrea, Rey, Xabier, Pellegrini, Daniel, Bonomolo, Giuseppe & Crocetta, Fabio, 2018, Revisiting the disjunct distribution of Conopleura Hinds, 1844 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Drilliidae), Zootaxa 4392 (3), pp. 567-587 : 582

The “ Conopleura -like” shell aberrations

WE IdENTIfIEd A REcuRRINg SHELL AbERRATION IN gASTROPOdS, cHARAcTERIzEd by A SHOuLdER SuLcuS wITH SEPTA SEPARATEd by RAdIATINg LAmELLAE, OfTEN IN AddITION TO AN ANAL SINuS. IT IS HERE dEfINEd AS “ Conopleura -LIkE” duE TO THE PRESENcE Of dIAgNOSTIc fEATuRES SImILAR TO THOSE ObSERVEd IN SPEcIES bELONgINg TO THE gENuS Conopleura HINdS, 1844 . WE SuSPEcT THAT THIS AbERRATION IS A RARE STRucTuRAL AbNORmALITy THAT OccuRS AfTER AbRuPT bREAkS ON SHELL SHOuLdERS ANd THAT OfTEN SEEmS TO REquIRE THE PRESENcE Of A HyPERmORPHIc SHOuLdER. THE PRESENcE Of SHELL AbNORmALITIES, AS wELL AS THE INcORREcT ESTAbLISHmENT Of NEw TAxA ON THE bASIS Of THEm, IS INdEEd A wELL-kNOwN PHENOmENON SINcE EARLy ScIENTIfIc ObSERVATIONS [E.g. Pyrula provincialis MARTIN, 1851: SEE PETIT dE LA SAuSSAyE (1851); Conus boivini KIENER, 1846: SEE COOmANS et al. (1982); Drillia signa BARTScH 1915: SEE KILbuRN (1988); Kenyonia pulcherrima BRAzIER, 1896: SEE TIPPETT & TuckER (1995); Buccinum labyrinthus GmELIN, 1791: SEE PASTORINO & KANTOR (1998); Djeddilia djeddilia JOuSSEAumE, 1894: SEE LOzOuET (2004); Nassa pulvinaris MARTENS, 1881: SEE KOOL (2014); Philine zangherii COEN, 1948: SEE CROcETTA & TRINgALI (2017)]. HOwEVER, mOST Of THE AbOVE-mENTIONEd TAxA HAVE bEEN PROmPTLy SyNONymIzEd, OR SImPLy HAVE gONE uNNOTIcEd uNTIL REcENTLy duE TO AbSENcE Of bIbLIOgRAPHIc RESEARcHES. IN THE PRESENT cASE, THE Conopleura -LIkE AbNORmALITy HIgHLIgHTEd HERE IN Tritia lima (DILLwyN, 1817) REmAINEd uNdETEcTEd uNTIL REcENTLy duE TO mORPHOLOgIcAL TRAITS REcALLINg Conopleura dIAgNOSTIc fEATuRES. THIS IS cLEARLy wHAT HAPPENEd NOT ONLy fOR “ Conopleura ” aliena SmRIgLIO, MARIOTTINI & CALAScIbETTA, 1999 , buT ALSO fOR THE PuzzLINg gENuS Kenyonia BRAzIER, 1896 wITH ITS SINgLE SPEcIES Kenyonia pulcherrima BRAzIER, 1896. ONLy kNOwN fROm ONE SPEcImEN wORLdwIdE, THE LATTER TAxON wAS SImPLy dEScRIbEd AS bASEd ON AN AbNORmAL SPEcImEN bELONgINg TO A Conus SPEcIES sensu lato SuffERINg A Conopleura -LIkE AbNORmALITy, AS ALSO mILdLy SuggESTEd IN THE PAST by ObSERVATIONS cARRIEd OuT by TIPPETT & TuckER (1995), INcLudINg x-RAy ANALySIS.