Pagodatrochus variabilis (H. Adams, 1873)

Minolia variabilis H. Adams, 1873: 207, pl. 23, fig. 10. Type loc.: Persian Gulf; holotype in NHM (NHMUK 1878.1.28.96), figured by Herbert (1989b: fig. 1e).

Pagodatrochus variabilis — Herbert, 1989b: 366, figs 1a–f, 2, 3, 4a–c, 5 (detailed synonymy). Bosch et al., 1995: 37, fig. 52. Zuschin et al., 2009: 99, pl. 9, figs 1–4. Bandel, 2010: 461, fig. 10. Jay, 2014.

Distribution. Western Indian Ocean, from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea through East Africa, the Comoros and Mascarene Islands to the KwaZulu-Natal south coast (off Park Rynie); local material 18–250 m, but mostly less than 100 m (living 18–100 m).

Notes. The phylogenetic relationships of this genus are unclear. Herbert (1989b) tentatively referred it to the Gibbulinae [= Cantharidinae], but more recently Bandel (2010) suggested that the genus was related to seguenzioid (eucycloid) taxa and created for it a new family, the Pagodatrochidae. Herbert (2012) noted that while some characters of the shell and radula of Pagodatrochus are indeed similar to those of chilodontid seguenzioids, features of the external anatomy are less consistent with such a relationship. In the absence of molecular data I consider it preferable to treat the genus as a vetigastropod taxon of uncertain affinity.