Japonacteon pusillus (MacGillivray, 1843)

Fig. 18 j–l

Tornatella pusilla Mac Gillivray, 1843 (pp. 60, 159).

Tornatella pusilla — Mac Gillivray 1844 (pp. 60, 159).

Actaeon pusillus Forbes—Hidalgo 1917 (p. 114).

Pseudactaeon pusillus (Forbes, 1843) — Nordsieck 1972 (p. 8, pl. O I, fig. 6).

Pseudactaeon pusillus (Forbes, 1844) — Biondi & Di Paco 1981 (p. 274, pl. 2, fig. 13); Poppe & Goto 1991 (p. 193, pl. 38, fig. 34).

Japonacteon pusillus (Forbes, 1844) — Barash & Danin 1992 (p. 179, fig. 195).

Japonacteon pusillus (McGillivray, 1843) — Smriglio & Mariottini 1996 (p. 187, fig. 11).

Japonacteon pusillus (Mac Gillivray, 1843) — Repetto et al. 2005 (p. 254, bottom left fig.).

Japonacteon pusillus (MacGillivray, 1843) — Beck et al. 2006 (p. 91, bottom fig.).

Diagnostic characters. Ovate shell; drop-shaped aperture; thin parietal callus; low and rounded columellar fold; close-set spiral rows of roundly rectangular pits, somewhat more incised just abapical to the sutures and on the lower base. Protoconch: heterostrophic, globose, obliquely immersed; 1 visible whorl; diameter about 520 µm; surface smooth; transition to the teleoconch marked by a simple lip.

Occurrence. Box-corer sample BC72 (7 specimens); cores BC04 (1), BC21 (1), BC51 (2), BC72 (5). Maximum height: 8 mm.

Distribution and habitat. The species has an Atlantic (from Bay of Biscay to Madeira, Cape Verde and the Caribbean) and Mediterranean distribution; it dwells on muddy and muddy-detritic bottoms from deep circalittoral to upper bathyal zones (Nordsieck 1972; Poppe & Goto 1991; Barash & Danin 1992; Beck et al. 2006; Cervera et al. 2006).

Fossil record. Pliocene and Pleistocene of Italy (Monterosato 1872; Di Geronimo & La Perna 1997; Di Geronimo et al. 2005; Tabanelli 2008).