Subfamily PELLIFRONIINAE new subfamily

(Fig. 2)

Type genus: Pellifronia Terryn & Holford, 2008

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E827742C-E1B3- 42DD-B5EB-5D7EAA6E2C95

Diagnosis: Diagnostic nucleotide combinations in Table 1.

Shell: Small to medium-sized (12–50 mm), with predominant axial sculpture. Early teleoconch whorls often with angled profile, later ones flattened or even slightly concave to convex. Sculpture of numerous close-set, evenly spaced, ribs, or forming raised nodules bordering upper or lower suture. Spiral sculpture absent or of very shallow, wide subsutural depression.

Anatomy: Rhynchodeal introvert small; proboscis, radular sac, odontophore, salivary and venom glands well developed. Radula with well-developed membrane, bearing 2 rows of wide marginal teeth of duplex type. Accessory proboscis structure absent.

Remarks: This subfamily comprises five described species in two genera, Bathyterebra and Pellifronia, that occur in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean at bathyal depths. The anatomy of the studied species shows characters that are believed to be ancestral for Terebridae in general, i.e. weakly developed rhynchodeal introvert and radular teeth of duplex type (Castelin et al., 2012).