Crassispira Swainson, 1840

Morassi, Mauro & Bonfitto, Antonio, 2013, Four new African turriform gastropods (Mollusca: Conoidea), Zootaxa 3710 (3), pp. 271-280 : 277

Genus Crassispira Swainson, 1840

Type species: Pleurotoma bottae Kiener, 1839

Remarks. The genus Crassispira is represented mainly in West America and in the Caribbean by numerous Tertiary to Recent species (Powell, 1966; Appeltans et al., 2012). Powell (1966) did not recognize any Crassispira species from Africa and listed only three Recent taxa as Indo-Pacific members of the genus, namely Drillia aesopus Schepman, 1913 ( Indonesia) , Clavatula sinensis Hinds, 1843 (New Guinea, Straits of Macassar and China Sea) and Drillia tasconium Melvill and Standen, 1901 (Gulf of Oman). However, the inclusion of these Indo- Pacific species in Crassispira is uncertain: in current literature D. aesopus and C. sinensis are usually regarded as members of the genus Inquisitor Hedley, 1918 (see Tucker, 2004 for detailed references) while D. tasconium can be assigned to Drillia Gray, 1838 (Kilburn, 1988) . Regional revision by Fernandes et al. (1995) and subsequent contributors (Nolf, 2009; Rolán et al., 2007; Ryall et al., 2009) indicate that at least fifteen Crassispira species occur in West Africa. Kilburn (1988) described Crassiclava balteata from southern Africa, which belongs to a group listed as a synonym of Crassispira by Appeltans et al. (2012). More recently, Bozzetti (2008) and Kilburn & Dekker (2008) described new Crassispira species respectively from Madagascar and Red Sea. Crassispira tuckerana Bonfitto & Morassi, 2011 , the sole Crassispira species previously described from Somalia (Bonfitto & Morassi, 2004), is morphologically distinctive and may prove referable to a genus distinct from Crassispira . The new species described below closely resemblances the type species Pleurotoma bottae Kiener, 1839 in all morphological features and can accordingly be assigned to genus Crassispira with confidence.