Conasprella Thiele 1929

Harzhauser, Mathias & Landau, Bernard, 2016, A revision of the Neogene Conidae and Conorbidae (Gastropoda) of the Paratethys Sea, Zootaxa 4210 (1), pp. 1-178 : 41

Genus Conasprella Thiele 1929

Type species (by subsequent designation, Tucker & Tenorio 2009): Conus pagoda Kiener, 1847 . Recent , Pacific, Philippines.

Note. According to Tucker & Tenorio (2009) the genus Conasprella Thiele 1929 is characterised by relatively small-shelled species, the spire is relatively elevated, with beaded early whorls. Cords may be present or absent on the spire whorls, the last whorl has sulci that reach mid-whorl and often the shoulder; the subsutural sinus is deep; an anterior notch is absent; and the protoconch is multispiral. This genus has a Miocene to Recent Indo-Pacific distribution. It is similar in shell characters to the Western Atlantic genus Jaspidiconus Petuch 1993 , which also has a Miocene to Recent record in tropical America (Landau & da Silva 2010), but differs in having tubercles developed along the shoulder carina of the last whorl. Jaspidiconus , together with Perplexiconus Tucker & Tenorio, 2009 , were considered synonyms of Ximeniconus Emerson & Old, 1962 by Puillandre et al. (2014a), although one can see that each of these groups is distinct, with Perplexiconus and Ximeniconus more closely related than Jaspidiconus . Conus jaspideus Gmelin, 1791 , the type species of Jaspidiconus , has a symmetrical curved subsutural flexure ( Hendricks 2009), requiring a revised diagnosis of Conasprella , if Jaspidiconus is considered as synonym of it, although it is more likely that they are distinct genera; Conasprella is restricted to the Indo-Pacific, while Jaspidiconus is tropical American. All Paratethyan species placed in Conasprella herein have tuberculate early spire whorls and beaded cords on the last whorl. Their subsutural flexures are shallow, moderately to strongly curved and moderately asymmetrical. This is an interesting record as it suggests, amongst others, a Paratethyan occurrence of a taxon nowadays restricted to the Indo-West Pacific.