Conuber Finlay & Marwick, 1937

Hollmann, Thomas Huelsken Daniel Tapken Tim Dahlmann Heike Wägele Cynthia Riginos Michael, 2012, Systematics and phylogenetic species delimitation within Polinices s. l. (Caenogastropoda: Naticidae) based on molecular data and shell morphology, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 12 (4), pp. 349-375 : 372

Conuber Finlay & Marwick, 1937

The genus Conuber is best suited to illustrate the extensive variability and high similarity of conchological features in species of the Polinicinae . Shell features characterizing valid Conuber species are also found in Neverita (compare C. incei ) or Polinices (compare C. conicus , C. sordidus ) (Fig. 1). Not surprisingly, C. incei has been assigned to the genus Neverita based on its depressed shell form, widened aperture and thin parietal callus (e.g. Hacking 1998). Based on the pyriform shell form, ratio of aperture height to total height and the morphology of parietal callus and columellar callus, C. conicus and C. sordidus were often assigned to the genus Polinices (e.g. Marincovich 1977; Booth 1995; Morton 2008). However, our phylogenetic analysis clearly demonstrated Conuber representing a distinct monophyletic taxon, thus contradicting the view of Conuber as a subgenus of Polinices as proposed by Finlay and Marwick in 1937 (p.53).

The distinctive character defining the genus Conuber is the large, sausage-shaped gelatinous egg mass without sand grain incorporation, which differs from the typical sand collar found in all other naticids ( Murray 1962, 1966; Booth 1995). This feature represents an autapomorphic character for Conuber (see also Riedel 2000) as it has not yet been found in any other naticid genus.