Triphora de Blainville, 1828

Bakker, Piet A. J. & Albano, Paolo G., 2022, Nomenclator, geographic and stratigraphic distribution of the family Triphoridae (Mollusca: Gastropoda), Zootaxa 5088 (1), pp. 1-216 : 13

Triphora de Blainville, 1828

Original reference. de Blainville 1828a: 344.

Type species. Triphora gemmata de Blainville, 1828 , by monotypy.

Remarks. Gender: feminine. The name Triphora comes from the Latin “Tres” (three) and “foris” (opening), which refer to the aperture, posterior and anterior canals. In 1823 (Deshayes 1834) or 1824 ( Jousseaume 1884) a meeting took place at the Natural History Society in which Deshayes presented a new species from fossil sands from Valmondois, France. The species was so distinct that Deshayes introduced it with a new genus. At the same meeting, de Blainville was also present. Deshayes worked after this meeting on a manuscript in which he attempted to describe this new genus, but the manuscript was not published. In 1828, de Blainville introduced the new genus Triphora based on the presentation of Deshayes at the meeting at the Natural History Society and based on the specimens from the Mediterranean. De Blainville did mention in his publication the manuscript of Deshayes that had not been published. In 1830, Deshayes published a work in which he referred to Blainville’s publication for the genus Triphora , but spelled it as Triphoris . In 1834, Deshayes wrote that he was aware of the introduction of this new genus by de Blainville, but, in his opinion, de Blainville had not clarified well enough its characters; he thus included a more thorough description. However, Deshayes (1834) spelled it as Triforis . The species mentioned in the works of de Blainville and Deshayes all do fit this genus description. In our opinion, it was not Deshayes’ intention to introduce Triforis or Triphoris as new genera separate from Blainville’s Triphora , because he clearly referred to de Balinville’s taxon in his discussion (“Cependant M. de Blainville, qui en avait eu connaissante, mentionna notre nouveau genre dans son Traité de malacology…” [translation: However, M. de Blainville, who had been familiar with it, mentioned our new genus in his Traite de Malacology…]). Therefore, Triforis and Triphoris are considered incorrect spellings of Triphora .