Euspira Agassiz, 1837

Hollmann, Thomas Huelsken Daniel Tapken Tim Dahlmann Heike Wägele Cynthia Riginos Michael, 2012, Systematics and phylogenetic species delimitation within Polinices s. l. (Caenogastropoda: Naticidae) based on molecular data and shell morphology, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 12 (4), pp. 349-375 : 373

Genus Euspira Agassiz in J. Sowerby, 1837

According to the analyses presented here, Euspira is not a subgenus of Polinices ( Marincovich 1977) but represents a valid genus related closely to Conuber and Neverita . Similar to earlier results, Payraudeautia intricata (Donovan, 1804) exhibits a high genetic similarity with and thus groups within, Euspira in all genetic analyses. Synonymisation of Payraudeautia with Euspira is therefore appropriate (see Table 1; Huelsken et al. 2008).

The genus Euspira Agassiz in Sowerby, 1837, is based on the fossil European species Natica glaucinoides Sowerby, 1812 from the Middle Eocene, by subsequent designation (Bucquoy et al. 1883). The genus is characterized by a globose to elongate-globose shell with a partly-tofully open umbilicus, abutting to an impressed suture, a slender umbilical callus, convex whorls and a turreted spire ( Bandel 1999). Species assigned to Euspira therefore show many shell characters (e.g. umbilical morphology, shell shape) that are identical to those in other naticid genera (e.g. Natica , Tectonatica ). Understandably, Bandel (1999) criticized the application of these shell characters in the establishment of a separate genus, Euspira , in particular since neither operculum nor protoconch of the type species of Euspira s.s. is known. Thus, a conchological analysis of N. glaucinoides and other taxa assigned to Euspira is need- ed to re-evaluate the taxonomic validity of Euspira .