Mioawateria Vella, 1954

Morassi, M. & Bonfitto, A., 2010, New raphitomine gastropods (Gastropoda: Conidae: Raphitominae) from the South-West Pacific, Zootaxa 2526, pp. 54-68 : 60

Genus Mioawateria Vella, 1954

Type species: Awateria personata Powell, 1942

Remarks: Vella (1954) proposed Mioawateria as a subgenus of Awateria Suter, 1917 , with Awateria personata Powell, 1942 , from the Early Pliocene of New Zealand, selected as the type species. Powell (1966) retained Vella’s systematics and referred both Awateria and Mioawateria to the subfamily Borsoniinae while Beu (1969), on the basis of protoconch features, raised Mioawateria to full generic rank and transferred it to the subfamily Raphitominae . Subsequently, Maxwell (1988) provided a reclassification of the New Zealand Mioawateria fossil species and synonymized Magnella Dittmer, 1960 , from the Miocene of Germany, with Mioawateria . He also assigned the Recent Indonesian Pleurotomella extensaeformis Schepman, 1913 to Mioawateria .

A second Recent Mioawateria species , Mioawateria asarotum Sysoev, 1997 , has recently been described from Indonesia. The species figured by Ardovini & Cossignani (2004) as Clathurella watsoni Dautzenberg, 1889 from Azores (West Africa) resembles the holotype of Mioawateria personata (pers. obs.) and may therefore prove to belong to Mioawateria . Similarly, Pleurotoma (Bela) blakeana var. extensa Dall, 1881 , recently figured by Absalão et al. (2005), resembles members of Mioawateria in shell outline and type of sculpture. As already noted by Kilburn (1991), Pleurotomella ( Gymnobela ?) tornata var. malmii Dall, 1889 from Cuba resembles Magnella andersoni Dittmer, 1960 as originally figured by Dittmer (1960). If Maxwell’s proposed synonymy is accepted, P. tornata var. malmii should be assigned to genus Mioawateria . Shuto (1992) assigned Pleurotoma quisquilia Philippi, 1887 , from the Tertiary of Chile, to Mioawateria but we agree with Nielsen (2003) that this species should be referred to genus Awheaturris Beu, 1970 . Mioawateria Vella, 1954 is morphologically similar to Gymnobela Verrill, 1884 from which it differs in having a much smaller size (usually not exceeding 10 mm in length), prominent subsutural fold and extremely weak anal sinus.