Vetulonia Dall, 1913

Herbert, David G., 2024, The Vetigastropoda (Mollusca) of Walters Shoal, with descriptions of two new genera and thirty new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 923, pp. 1-119 : 36

Genus Vetulonia Dall, 1913

Type species

Vetulonia galapagana Dall, 1913 (original designation), Recent, eastern Pacific.

Remarks

Vetulonia was tentatively referred to the Calliotropinae by Warén & Bouchet (1993), but no further progress has been made in clarifying the affinity of the genus. Kano et al. (2009) noted some anatomical similarity with calliotropids and chilodontaids, but in the absence of molecular data, chose to treat Vetulonia as a skeneimorph seguenzioid of uncertain affinity. More recently Kiel et al. (2020) placed the genus in the Seguenziidae .

Adult and juvenile radulae of V. jeffreysi Dall, 1913 [= V. paucivaricosa (Dautzenberg, 1889) ] were figured by Warén & Bouchet (1993) and a re-evaluation of these images in the light of more recent studies on seguenzioid taxa indicates considerable similarity with radulae of species now referred to the Chilodontaidae ( Herbert 2012) . The juvenile radula, apart from its reduced number of lateral teeth, is very similar to that of species of Herpetopoma Pilsbry, 1890 and Vaceuchelus , whereas the adult radula is much like that of species of Granata Cotton, 1957 , all of which belong to the Chilodontaidae . Furthermore, the strong axial ribs on the first teleoconch whorl and its vermiform microsculpture (see below) are features common in chilodontaids, as are the relatively low, non-globose protoconch with granular microsculpture, and the claviform eyestalks with large eyes ( Herbert 2012). I believe these similarities are sufficient to indicate that Vetulonia is also referable to the Chilodontaidae .