Solatisonax bannocki ( Melone & Taviani, 1980 )

Negri, Mauro Pietro & Corselli, Cesare, 2016, Bathyal Mollusca from the cold-water coral biotope of Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulian margin, southern Italy), Zootaxa 4186 (1), pp. 1-97 : 73

Solatisonax bannocki ( Melone & Taviani, 1980)

Fig. 16 l–n

Architectonica bannocki Melone & Taviani, 1980 (p. 97, figs. 1–2).

Solatisonax bannocki ( Melone & Taviani, 1980) —Melone & Taviani 1984 (p. 157, figs. 12–1); Repetto et al. 2005 (p. 224, bottom right fig.).

Diagnostic characters. Low-spired, almost discoidal shell; weak subsutural shoulder giving the spire a somewhat step-like profile; markedly prosocline rhomboidal aperture; wide and very deep umbilicus bordered by a row of knobs; robust peripheral keel; numerous fine spiral threads cut into minute granules by dense radial striae. Protoconch: heterostrophic; about 2 whorls, the first deeply immersed; diameter about 800 µm; surface smooth; transition to the teleoconch marked by a thin, everted lip.

Occurrence. Box-corer samples BC11 (2 specimens), BC67 (1), BC68 (1), BC70 (4), BC71 (1), BC72 (11). Maximum diameter: 10 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Solatisonax bannocki is distributed in the western Mediterranean basin and in the nearby Atlantic, as far south as Cape Verde; it is a bathyal species dwelling on mud and probably associated with deep-water corals ( Melone & Taviani 1980, 1984). The present occurrence could be the easternmost record of the species in the Mediterranean.

Fossil record. Upper and Middle Pleistocene of Calabria and Sicily Channel (Melone & Taviani 1984).

Figures

FIGURE 16. a – c: Pleurotomella gibbera Bouchet & Warén, 1980, sample BC 66, scale bars: 1 mm (a), 0.2 mm (b – c, protoconch); d – f: Discotectonica discus (Philippi, 1844), sample BC 72, scale bars: 2 mm (d – e), 0.2 mm (f, protoconch); g – h: Pseudomalaxis zanclaeus (Philippi, 1844), sample BC 72, scale bar 5 mm; i – k: Solatisonax alleryi (Seguenza, 1876), sample BC 72, scale bars: 2 mm (i – j), 0.2 mm (k, protoconch); l – n: Solatisonax bannocki (Melone & Taviani, 1980), sample BC 71, scale bars: 2 mm (l – m), 0.2 mm (n, protoconch); o – q: Spirolaxis centrifugus (Monterosato, 1890), sample BC 72, scale bars: 1 mm (o – p), 0.2 mm (q, protoconch).