File:American malacological bulletin (1988) (18156224685).jpg

Title: American malacological bulletin
Identifier: americanmal6719881990amer (find matches)
Year: 1983 (1980s)
Authors: American Malacological Union
Subjects: Mollusks; Mollusks
Publisher: (Hattiesburg, Miss. ?) : (American Malacological Union)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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82 AMER. MALAC. BULL. 6(1) (1988) Pilsbry, 1893, was described from a specimen bearing only the data "Panama (McNeill Expedition)", prompting subse- quent question as to whether A. rhodea properly belonged to the Caribbean fauna, the eastern Pacific fauna, or perhaps to both. Leloup (1941) reported specimens of Acanthochiton rhodeus from off Cabo la Vela, Caribbean Colombia, and pro- vided additional descriptive notes for the species. Keen (1958) listed Acanthochitona rhodea in her compendium of mollusks from the eastern Pacific but noted that the species might belong to the Caribbean rather than the Panamic fauna. A. G. Smith (1961) seemed to confirm the presence of A. rhodea in the eastern Pacific when he contrasted its characters with those of A. tabogensis Smith, 1961, and A. hirundiniformis (=hirudiniformis) (Sowerby, 1832), two other species from that region. The name again appeared on a list of Caribbean fauna in Houbrick's (1968) account of species from Costa Rica. Thorpe (In Keen, 1971) illustrated a specimen identified as A. rhodea and listed its range as Mexico (Pacific Ocean) to Peru. Kaas (1972) summarized descriptions by Pilsbry and by Leloup and treated the species as a member of the Caribbean fauna. The species again was illustrated and reported from Carib- bean Colombia by Gdtting (1973). Watters (1981) relegated A. rhodea to the synonymy of A. hemphilli without discussion of morphological characters or geographic range, only to be followed soon thereafter by Ferreira (1985) who declared A. hemphilli to be a synonym of A. rhodea, citing page priority of the original descriptions. Ferreira concluded that the com- plex constituted a single species ranging from Florida and the Bahamas to Brazil in the western Atlantic Ocean and from Mex- ico to Peru in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Examination of type- specimens of both species, as well as additional materials from Florida, the Bahama Islands, several localities in the northern Caribbean, the Caribbean coast of Central America, and the Pacific coasts of Costa Rica and Panama, indicates that the complex actually consists of three species, including one previously undescribed. One of Pilsbry's specimens (ANSP 35803) is herein designated as lectotype of Acanthochites hemphilli Pilsbry, 1893. Pilsbry described a dried specimen 24 mm in length. The lectotype measures about 24 mm overall and is partially disarticulated (Fig. 7); valves i-vi remain attached to the gir- dle, but valves vii and viii are free. Pilsbry described the posterior valve viii as "...not bilobed behind, having the usual two slits, and between them a number (6-8) of smaller, ir- regular and unequal slits or nicks". That this is the specimen described by Pilsbry is confirmed by the condition of valve viii, which is aberrant. The valve has two slits in the usual positions (Fig. 8), but one slit is unusually large and wide, whereas the other is unusually small and narrow; the reported irregularities are also present. Asymmetrical tail valves are not unusual in Acantho- chitona; several valves viii of A. astrigera which I examined were misshapen, some completely lacking one of the posterior slits. All other characters of the lectotype, including the reniform tegmental pustules (Fig. 9), indicate the specimen to be conspecific with material reported here as A. hemphilli. The reniform pustules, "smooth" girdle, greenish white sutural laminae, and subquadrate, parallel-sided intermediate valves
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9 Figs. 7-9. Acanthochitona hemphilli (Pilsbry, 1893), lectotype; Key West, Florida; ANSP 35083. Fig. 7. Whole specimen. Fig. 8. Valve viii, ventral. Fig. 9. Tegmental pustules, valve vii (field width = 345 fim). distinguish A. hemphilli from A. rhodea and from the new species. Acanthochitona hemphilli now is demonstrated to oc- cur from southeast Florida and the northern Bahama Islands southward to Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Belize, and Honduras. Specimens reported from Cuba (Jaume and Sarasua, 1943) and Caribbean Mexico (Vokes and Vokes, 1983) are probably referable to this species, whereas those reported from Carib- bean Panama (Olsson and McGinty, 1958) almost certainly are A. rhodea (see that species account). Specimens il- lustrated by Kaas (1972: pi. 2, figs. 1, 2) from Curacao as A. hemphilli are A. rhodea. Other reports of A. hemphilli from Bar- bados, Bonaire, and Venezuela (Ferreira, 1985) and Aruba (Kaas, 1972) could also represent A. rhodea. Records by Righi (1971) of A. hemphilli in Brazil seem especially unlikely

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