Monilea Swainson, 1840

Herbert, David G., 2024, The Umboniinae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Trochidae) of New Caledonia, with descriptions of two new genera and eight new species, plus an additional new species from the Bismarck Sea, European Journal of Taxonomy 973, pp. 1-143 : 35

Genus Monilea Swainson, 1840

Monilea Swainson, 1840: 220 , 350.

Type species

Trochus calliferus Lamarck, 1822 (monotypy), Recent, Indo-West Pacific.

Remarks

The taxonomy of the genus Monilea is complex and in need of revision – much remains unresolved. If illustrated at all, the original figures of the species described in the 19 th century were frequently poor. As a consequence, use of these names in more recent literature has lacked authority and many have been used inconsistenly. Rarely was there evidence that the type material had been consulted and more recent authors have simply followed earlier authors in applying names. This situation is further exacerbated by the fact that recent illustrations often present the shell in apertural view only, which does not show critical features of umbilical morphology. Some of the species currently referred to Monilea (MolluscaBase 2024) belong instead to Talopena , which I consider to be a distinct genus. This issue is discussed further under the Remarks for Talopena (below) where I provide illustrations of the holotypes of the type species of both genera ( Fig. 34 ) and detail the characters which set them apart. None of the New Caledonian material examined is referable to Monilea .

Figures

Fig. 34. Comparison of Monilea Swainson, 1840 and Talopena Iredale, 1918. A–C. Monilea callifera (Lamarck, 1822), holotype ofTrochus calliferus Lamarck, 1822 (MHNG-MOLL-51504), height 10 mm, diameter 19 mm (images courtesy of Emmanuel Tardy). D–G. Talopena incerta (Iredale, 1912), holotype of Monilea incerta Iredale, 1912 (CMNZ M2755), height 7.8 mm, diameter 9.5 mm (not 10 ×9 mm as given by Iredale) (images courtesy of Paul Scofield and Mark Fraser).