Tinalucina, Cosel, 2006

Cosel, Rudo von, 2006, Taxonomy of tropical West African bivalves. VI. Remarks on Lucinidae (Mollusca, Bivalvia), with description of six new genera and eight new species, Zoosystema 28 (4), pp. 805-851 : 814

Genus Tinalucina n. gen.

TYPE SPECIES. — Tinalucina aequatorialis n. sp.

SPECIES INCLUDED. — Tinalucina aequatorialis n. sp.; T. inanis ( Prashad, 1932) n. comb.

ETYMOLOGY. — Dedicated to my colleague Tina Molodtsova in acknowledgement of her work-up of the collection of antipatharians of MNHN.

DISTRIBUTION. — Inner Gulf of Guinea, tropical West Africa, and Indo-West Pacific (Sumbawa, Indonesia).

DIAGNOSIS. — Shells small, mostly under 10 mm, variable in outline, subcircular, slightly longer than high to almost as long as high, moderately tumid, with a broad anterior and posterior part and a more or less truncated, very slightly or not indented posterior margin. Anterior margin more convex in its middle part. Beaks in or just in front of the vertical midline. Umbones rather prominent. Surface with more or less developed, densely spaced fine commarginal lamellae, which may be obsolete on the middle part of the disk. Antero-dorsal area small and hardly separated, a depression may be visible. Posterior angle rounded, postero-dorsal depression broad and shallow but well developed. Lunule small, not too narrow, only slightly asymmetrical. Escutcheon entirely filled with the ligament. Hinge plate more or less narrow, with slight vestiges of one or two cardinals. Diverging part of anterior adductor scar short and broad, with a length of about half the total length of the scar. Inner margins smooth.

REMARKS

The species of this genus are characterized by a combination of features:small size, nearly equal-sized adductor scars with the short and broad anterior adductor with short diverging part, well set-off posterior area and somewhat irregular surface of the valves. The other species in the genus is Tinalucina inanis n. comb., which was placed in Dentilucina (Dentilucina) by Prashad (1932). Dentilucina P. Fischer, 1887 (type species: Venus jamaicensis Spengler, 1784 ), however, is an objective synonym of Phacoides Agassiz, 1845 . The two species united in the new genus Tinalucina n. gen. demonstrate again a close relationship between the molluscan fauna of tropical West Africa and that of the Indo-West Pacific realm.