Limea crassa ( Forbes, 1844 )

Negri, Mauro Pietro & Corselli, Cesare, 2016, Bathyal Mollusca from the cold-water coral biotope of Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulian margin, southern Italy), Zootaxa 4186 (1), pp. 1-97 : 32-33

Limea crassa ( Forbes, 1844)

Fig. 6 n–p

Lima (Limatula) crassa Forbes, 1844 (p. 193).

Limea sarsii Lovén, 1846 (p. 186).

Notolimea crassa crassa ( Forbes, 1843) — Nordsieck 1969 (p. 56). Notolimea crassa sarsi ( Loven, 1846) — Nordsieck 1969 (p. 56, pl. 9, fig. 36.01). Lima (Notolimea) crassa (Forbes)— Di Geronimo & Panetta 1973 (p. 101, pl. 2, fig. 10).

Limea (Notolimea) crassa (Forbes) — Di Geronimo 1974 (p. 154, pl. 3, fig. 6).

Limea crassa (Forbes) — Di Geronimo & Bellagamba 1985 (pl. 3, fig. 10).

Notolimea crassa ( Forbes, 1844) — Cossignani et al. 1992 (fig. 300); Poppe & Goto 1993 (p. 77, pl. 12, fig. 13); Salas 1996 (p. 58); Giannuzzi-Savelli et al. 2001 (p. 222, fig. 471); Repetto et al. 2005 (p. 305, mid left fig.); Beck et al. 2006 (p. 103, top fig.).

Notolimea crassa (Forbes) —Rosso et al. 2010 (fig. 11 F).

Limea crassa ( Forbes, 1844) — Oliver et al. 2016 (online resource).

Diagnostic characters. Oval, nearly equilateral shell; hinge line with small denticles on both sides of the ligamental pit; commarginal lamellar folds passing over radial ribs; raised, fluted to spatulate projections at the intersections. Prodissoconch: shell type ST-2D; length about 110 µm; roundish D-shaped outline; convex profile; surface with fine granulations; P-2 absent; transition to the nepioconch marked by narrow metamorphic shell lip.

Occurrence. Box-corer samples BC04 (46), BC05 (57), BC11 (3), BC22 (1), BC66 (32), BC67 (6), BC68 (1), BC71 (1), BC72 (187); cores BC04 (33), BC05 (111), BC21 (85), BC51 (67), BC52 (3), BC67 (1), BC72 (89). Maximum height: 3.5 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Limea crassa is distributed from Norway and Iceland to West Africa, the Azores, St. Helena and the Mediterranean, dwelling on muddy bottoms from about 30 to 2700 m depth ( Nordsieck 1969; Poppe & Goto 1993; Pons-Moyà & Pons 1999, Oliver et al. 2016). It was regarded as an accompanying element of both VP (bathyal mud) and CB (deep-sea white corals) biocoenoses ( Di Geronimo & Bellagamba 1985), also occurring in the Abra-Nucula biocoenosis in the bathyal of Taranto ( Di Geronimo & Panetta 1973). In the Santa Maria di Leuca CWC biotope, it was found on the muddy bottoms around the coral colonies (Mastrototaro et al. 2010), being common in mollusk mud thanatofacies (Rosso et al. 2010).

Fossil record. Pliocene and Pleistocene of Italy ( Di Geronimo & Bellagamba 1985; Barrier et al. 1987; Di Geronimo & La Perna 1997; Monegatti & Raffi 2001; Tabanelli 2008).

Figures

FIGURE 6. a – c: Spondylus gussonii Costa, 1830; LV, samples BC 11 (a – b) and BC 71 (c), scale bars: 5 mm (a – b), 0.1 mm (c, prodissoconch); d – g: Heteranomia squamula (Linnaeus, 1758); LV, samples BC 11 (d – e) and BC 72 (f – g), scale bars: 5 mm (d – e), 0.5 mm (f, juvenile), 0.1 mm (g, prodissoconch); h – j: Limaria loscombi (Sowerby G. B. I, 1823); RV, sample BC 72, scale bars: 2 mm (h – i), 0.1 mm (j, prodissoconch); k – m: Limatula subauriculata Montagu, 1808; RV (k, m) and LV (l), samples BC 71 (k, m) and BC 72 (l), scale bars: 1 mm (k – l), 0.1 mm (m, prodissoconch); n – p: Limea crassa (Forbes, 1844); RV (o) and LV (n, p), samples BC 71 (n, p) and BC 72 (o), scale bars: 1 mm (n – o), 0.1 mm (p, prodissoconch).