Mirapecten Dall, Bartsch & Rehder, 1938

Dijkstra, H. H. & Kilburn, R. N., 2001, The family Pectinidae in South Africa and Mozambique (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Pectinoidea), African Invertebrates 42, pp. 263-321 : 282-283

Genus Mirapecten Dall, Bartsch & Rehder, 1938

Mirapecten Dall, Bartsch & Rehder, 1938: 84 . Type species (OD): Mirapecten thaanumi Dall, Bartsch & Rehder, 1938 (= Pecten mirificus Reeve, 1853 ); Recent, Hawaii.

Somalipecten Waller, 1986: 41 . Type species (OD): Somalipecten cranmerorum Waller, 1986 ; Recent , off Somalia. Syn. n.

Remarks: Hertlein (1969: N366) treated Mirapecten as a subgenus of Semipallium [Jousseaume] Lamy, 1928, which he referred to the same suprageneric group as Decatopecten . Waller (1986: 40), followed by Vaught (1989: 119), considered Mirapecten as a full genus in the tribe Decatopectinini . Somalipecten was originally differentiated from Mirapecten by the presence in the latter taxon of a deep byssal notch throughout ontogeny and of well-developed scales on its radial plicae (or at least on the posterior plica of both valves). However even within different species of Mirapecten these characters vary, so that the byssal notch may be deep or only moderately deep, and scales range from well developed to absent.

Representative Recent species of Mirapecten are: M. rastellum (Lamarck, 1819) and M. mirificus (Reeve, 1853) from the tropical W and SW Pacific, M. spiceri ( Rehder, 1944) from the central Pacific, M. cranmerorum (Waller, 1986) from off Somalia, M. moluccensis Dijkstra, 1988 , from the tropical W. Pacific, M. tuberosus sp. n. (described herein) from the tropical and subtropical western Indian Ocean, and M. yaroni Dijkstra & Knudsen, 1998 , from the Red Sea region.