Fustiaria vagina Scarabino, 1995

Scarabino, Victor, 2008, New species and new records of scaphopods from New Caledonia, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 196, pp. 215-268 : 236-237

Fustiaria vagina Scarabino, 1995

Fustiaria vagina Scarabino, 1995: 281 , figs 71h, 87, 8i. Material cited: 8 lots (13 spms) from Chesterfield Plateau, New Caledonia, Loyalty Ridge, live in 630- 675 m.

NEW MATERIAL EXAMINED. — North of New Caledonia. BATHUS 4: stn DW 914, Grand Passage, 18°48’S, 163°15’E, 600-616 m, 1 dd; stn DW 915, 18°51’S, 163°17’E, 575-580 m, 1 dd .

DISTRIBUTION. — Chesterfield Plateau , north of New Caledonia, Norfolk and Loyalty Ridges, live in 630-675 m, shells in 290-820 m (Scarabino, 1995) .

GENERAL REMARKS. — Four Fustiaria species with a long and straigth slit on the ventral side occur in the region: F. mariae (described above), F. nipponica (Yokoyama, 1922) , F. caesura ( Colman, 1958) and F. steineri (described above). Fustiaria mariae is known from the Philippines, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Fustiaria nipponica , fragile and translucent, has a wide western Pacific distribution, from Japan to New Caledonia, from the littoral to 200 m (Habe 1964), live in 0-71 m (Scarabino 1995). It also occurs in northwestern Australia, reported as F. stenoschizum by Lamprell & Healy (1998). Fustiaria steineri is known from New Caledonia (Atoll de Surprise and Norfolk Ridge) and Vanuatu, live in 613-616 m, shells from 400 m. Fustiaria caesura , described from southeastern Australia, seems to have a restricted distribution.

Lamprell & Healy (1998) preferred to follow Boissevain (1906) and used the name F. stenoschizum ( Pilsbry & Sharp, 1897) (syntypes ANSP 71081) for northern Australian specimens. However, F. stenoschizum is a common species ranging from the Caribbean south to Espiritu Santo ( Brasil), live in 60-120 m (Scarabino pers. obs.). Although there are few shell characters that distinguish fustiariids, I am reluctant to accept such a discontinuous distribution in two oceans for a scaphopod species inhabiting moderate water depths. For Indonesian specimens Boissevain (1906) used the name F. tenuifissum Monterosato, 1875 (= F. rubescens Deshayes, 1825 ) as did Ludbrook (1954) for western Indian Ocean specimens. Recent revision ( Nicklès 1979) and personal observations confirm that F. rubescens is distributed in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic areas (from France to Gabon and the São Thomé Islands). Pending further research, I prefer to use different names for specimens from different oceans; molecular studies are probably necessary to confirm the validity of these regularly slit fustiariids.