Notosinister kawamurai Kosuge, 1962

Figure 56

Notosinister kawamurai Kosuge 1962a: 81, pl. 10, fig. 3, text figs 5, 6.

Type locality.

Ankyaba, Setouchi-machi, Amami Islands.

Type material.

Holotype: TZM Mo. 13035 (fide Kosuge 1962a; not seen, illustrated in Higo et al. 2001: 50, G1661s). Paratype: NHMUK 1966138: 1 specimen, Amami Islands, Japan .

Original description.

Shell small, conical, tapering to the summit, lower part of spire somewhat cylindrical. Protoconch pale brown, with a single spiral keel and crossed axial threads, mature whorls 10 or more, suture well defined with a supra-sutural thread. Sculpture 3 rows of granules, median row rapidly turns to a spiral thread at its earlier whorls. Colour pattern distinctive, upper row of granules and suprasutural thread reddish brown, remainder white, other 2 spiral colour bands on the body whorl. Granules small, somewhat squarish, apart by half of its diameter and 22 to a whorl. Each granule connected with slightly oblique, fine axial columns and faint spiral threads. Fourth row of granules encircles on the periphery of the body whorl and coloured reddish brown, fifth on the base, slightly granulated and also stained reddish brown, and sixth on the anterior canal, smooth. Anterior canal straight.

Shell length: 6.0 mm.

Remarks: This species is closely related to N. sardonyx (Laseron) and Cautor albozonatus (Laseron), though differs from the former in having a distinct sutural groove and a supra-sutural thread, and from the latter in its protoconch and sculpture of body whorl, and also distinguished from T. regina Hedley in its colour pattern.