Awheaturris Beu, 1970

Morassi, Mauro & Bonfitto, Antonio, 2013, Three new bathyal raphitomine gastropods (Mollusca: Conoidea) from the Indo-Pacific region, Zootaxa 3620 (4), pp. 579-588 : 585

Genus Awheaturris Beu, 1970

Remarks: Beu (1970) originally introduced Awheaturris for Awheaturris echinata Beu, 1970 , a Late Miocene species from New Zealand. The author noted that some species of Mioawateria , including Mioawateria expalliata (Laws, 1947) which is a “typical” Mioawateria , are very similar to A. echinata in teleoconch shape and sculpture. The differential character is the protoconch type which is smooth with few terminal axial ribs in Awheaturris and diagonally reticulate in Mioawateria . As the basis of this difference in protoconch, Awheaturris was assigned to subfamily Borsoniinae (raised to family rank according to the new classification of Bouchet et al., 2011 and Puillandre et al., 2011). Subsequently, Maxwell (1988) noted that the Late Miocene New Zealand Awateria (Mioawateria) pahoensis Vella, 1954 , originally assigned to genus Mioawateria , has “a mamillate protoconch of about 1.5 whorls, smooth except for axial costae on the last 0.25 whorl” and proposed an assignment to Awheaturris . More recently, Nielsen (2003) recognized a third member of Awheaturris , namely Pleurotoma quisquilia Philippi, 1887 from the Miocene of Chile, a species treated as Mioawateria by Shuto (1992). In type of axial ribbing and strongly nodulous subsutural cord the recent species from the Philippines, described here, resembles members of the genus Mioawateria but differs from them in possession a paucispiral protoconch which is smooth with few axial riblets at its transition to teleoconch. The new species differs from members of the genus Taranis in the presence of stronger axial ribbing, absence of a microscopic sculpture of granules on teleoconch surface and in having a smooth protoconch. The genus Awheaturris is here referred to family Raphitomidae mainly on the basis of its strong morphological resemblance to genera Mioawateria and Taranis in teleoconch characters. Most raphitomine species with a paucispiral type of protoconch have a microscopic sculpture (usually consisting of granulous spiral threads) while in Awheaturris there is no trace of protoconch sculpture even under SEM (fig. 1.S–T). Bouchet et al. (2011: 286) have recently assigned the genus Paramontana Laseron, 1954 , previously referred to the Mangeliidae (see Sysoev, 1993 in Taylor, J.D. et al., 1993), to family Raphitomidae . Clathurella modesta Angas, 1877 , type species of Paramontana , has a paucispiral smooth protoconch, while traces of axial sculpture occur in Paramontana fusca Laseron, 1954 (Laseron, 1954: 41) . Thus the presence of a smooth protoconch in Awheaturris does not preclude assignment to family Raphitomidae .