Protocuspidaria verityi Allen & Morgan, 1981

Gofas, Serge, Luque, Ángel A., Oliver, Joan Daniel, Templado, José & Serrano, Alberto, 2021, The Mollusca of Galicia Bank (NE Atlantic Ocean), European Journal of Taxonomy 785 (1), pp. 1-114 : 94-95

Protocuspidaria verityi Allen & Morgan, 1981

Fig. 43D–G

Material examined

GALICIA BANK • 2 spm, 2 sh, 6 v; 43°00.12′ N, 11°57.67′ W; 1706 m; 29 Jul. 2011; BANGAL 0711 V2; MNCN • 3 v; 42°37.77′ N, 11°49.46′ W; 818 m; 30 Jul. 2011; BANGAL 0711 V3; MNCN • 1 v; 42°59.61′ N, 11°58.41′ W; 1671 m; 7 Aug. 2011; BANGAL 0711 V9; MNCN .

Remarks

This species was misidentified as Protocuspidaria colpodes (Dautzenberg & H. Fischer, 1897) in Salas (1996), in the preliminary INDEMARES BANGAL report ( Gofas et al. 2014b) and in Gofas et al. (2017), on the grounds that could be an older name, but Krylova (1995) convincingly recognized these as separate species and the GB specimens would then go to P. verityi .

Bathymetric distribution of the species

There is a clearcut separation between mollusc communities on the shallower summit platform of GB and the deeper samples collected below the Mediterranean outflow (i.e., below 1200 m). This is highly supported when involving the beam-trawl catches only ( Fig. 45B ) by the Bray-Curtis similarity index and a R ANOSIM value of 0.7 (both on quantitative and on presence/absence data). The grouping of the deep samples is also retrieved when taking into account all samples ( Fig. 45A ), even though the sampled surfaces and the meshed are unequal between dredge, beam trawl and otter trawl. Table 3 shows the contribution of the species to the similarity between samples, calculated on the quantitative data for beam trawls only.

Trophic groups

Filter feeders, mostly the bivalves, account for more than half of the individuals collected (Fig. 46). Among these, Limopsis Sasso, 1827 represent roughly half of the specimens of the “filter feeders” group (but different species on the plateau and in the deeper samples), while the presence of the many ectoparasitic species (mostly, in the family Eulimidae ) is testimonial from a quantitative point of view.

Figures

Fig. 43. Halonymphidae, Protocuspidariidae. A–C. Halonympha depressa (Jeffreys, 1882), BANGAL 0711, V2, 1706 m, 6.5 and 6.8 mm. D–F. Protocuspidaria verityi Allen & Morgan, 1981, BANGAL 0711, V2, 7.3 and 6.4 mm. G. Detail of the hinge of the right valve (same as E), the arrow points to the diagnostic anterior tooth. H–J. Protocuspidaria simplis Allen & Morgan, 1981, BANGAL 0711, V10, 1720 m, 9.0 mm, 10.1 mm. K. Detail of the hinge of the right valve (same as I), without tooth. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Fig. 45. Similarity between samples from the BANGAL 0711 campaign, based on presence/absence data of living specimens for molluscan species and on the Bray-Curtis similarity index (A, all samples; B, beam trawl samples only). Sample labels with depth in brackets. A similar topology was obtained using the abundance data transformed to fourth root.