Pustulatirus Vermeij and Snyder, 2006

Lyons And Martin Avery Snyder, William G., 2013, The Genus Pustulatirus Vermeij and Snyder, 2006 (Gastropoda: Fasciolariidae: Peristerniinae) in the Western Atlantic, with Descriptions of Three New Species, Zootaxa 3636 (1), pp. 35-58 : 36-37

Genus Pustulatirus Vermeij and Snyder, 2006

Type Species: Latirus mediamericanus Hertlein and Strong, 1951 ( Figures 1–4 ), Recent, tropical eastern Pacific, by original designation (Vermeij and Snyder 2006).

Revised Diagnosis: Shells of small to moderate size, largest to about 100 mm sl, generally slender, with tall spire and well-developed siphonal process. Shells ornamented with narrow to broad axial ribs and low spiral cords, latter often most developed near outer lip; whorl surface sometimes nearly smooth, waxy on central sectors and on abapical end of siphonal process; outer lip markedly convex just above basal constriction, edge rendered serrate by extensions of interspaces between spiral cords of body whorl; inner side of outer lip with beaded lirae resembling pustules; 3 or 4 plicae aligned obliquely to axis of columella, sometimes with a smaller plica adapically; adapical and abapical sinuses distinct.

Radula formula 1-1-1, median tooth quadrate, with 3 cusps; lateral teeth broad, somewhat curved; species for which radula known with 6 slender, well-developed, subequal cusps, sometimes with single smaller cusps at inner and/or outer corners.

Remarks: Vermeij and Snyder (2006) treated Pustulatirus as feminine. However, Article 30.1.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999) states, in part, “a genus-group name that is or ends in a Latin word takes the gender given for that word …,” in this case that word being the masculine Latirus .

To the original description of Pustulatirus (Vermeij and Snyder, 2006) we add a diagnosis of the radula, figured for a Caribbean species by Abbott (1958) and Bullock (1968), and we note the serrate edge of the outer lip, which we found to occur consistently on all western Atlantic and all but one eastern Pacific species. We caution that pustulose lirae and serrate outer lips are features of mature shells and may be poorly developed or absent on immature specimens. We did not find serrate edges on outer lips of Hemipolygona , Polygona , Leucozonia Gray, 1847 , Opeatostoma Berry, 1958 , or Bullockus , Lamellilatirus , and Lightbournus Lyons and Snyder, 2008 , the other New World peristerniine genera. Outer lips of some Fusolatirus Kuroda and Habe, 1971 , an Indo-west Pacific genus, also have serrate edges, but their internal lirae are uninterrupted, not beaded or pustulose.

Pustulose lirae are not diagnostic solely for Pustulatirus . Lyons and Snyder (2008) also described pustulose lirae in Lamellilatirus and Bullockus . Pustules varied from few and faint to numerous and distinct among seemingly mature specimens of single species.

We did not consistently find pustulose lirae or labral serrata on shells of Latirus hemphilli Hertlein and Strong, 1951 , a Panamic species placed in Pustulatirus by Vermeij and Snyder (2006). Both features were uncommon among 44 specimens in 21 lots from México and Panamá. When present, the features tended to occur on immature shells or, in the case of labral serrata, on repaired lips of adult shells.

The type species and other eastern Pacific Pustulatirus species have small, tapered protoconchs that suggest a planktotrophic veliger whereas protoconchs of western Atlantic species are lecithotrophic, suggesting demersal development.

The eastern Pacific P. mediamericanus and P. praestantior (Melvill, 1891c) are larger than any Atlantic congener, attaining sizes of about 91 and 100 mm respectively (Pisor & Poppe 2008) whereas the largest Atlantic species, P. ogum and P. virginensis , attain only 53.2 and 52.8 mm (both herein).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 37. New World Pustulatirus species. 1 – 4. Pustulatirus mediamericanus (Hertlein and Strong, 1951). 1 – 3. ANSP 449744, 50.0 mm, off Cebaco Island, Panamá, 36.6 m. 4. Same specimen, protoconch. 5 – 7. Turbinella attenuata Reeve, 1847. Holotype, NHMUK 196735, 31.1 mm, locality unknown. 8 – 11. Latirus virginensis Abbott, 1958. 8 - 9. Holotype, ANSP 196459, 34.2 mm, St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands. 10 – 11. Paratype, ANSP 34969, 26.6 mm West Indies. 12 – 13. Latirus karinae Nowell- Usticke, 1969. Lectotype, AMNH 198490, 32.7 mm, Puerto Rico. 14 – 30. Pustulatirus virginensis. 14. ANSP 449754, 41.4 mm, Las Galeras, Samana, Dominican Republic. 15. ANSP 449714, 52.7 mm, off St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands. 16. ANSP 449713, 47.7 mm, St. Thomas. 17. AMNH 191464, 50.5 mm, St. Johns, Antigua. 18. ANSP 449712, 34.7 mm, off Guadeloupe, 30 - 50 m. 19 – 21. ANSP 449717, 32.6 mm, off St. Barthelemy, 100 m. 22. ANSP 249155, 29.4 mm, off East Point, Anegada Island. 23. ANSP 35033, 38.5 mm, shell figured as Latirus elegans (Gray) by Kaicher (1986), locality unknown. 24. ANSP 449716, 27.1 mm, north of Sandy Cay, West End, Grand Bahama Island, 15 - 17 m. 25. ANSP 449715, 30.0 mm, Castillo, Duarte, Dominican Republic, 1.2 m. 26. ANSP 449720, 30.6 mm, Little St. James Island, U. S. Virgin Islands, 7.3 m. 27 – 28. ANSP 449719, 20.7 mm, Bimini, Bahamas. 29 – 30. ANSP 449718, 26.7 mm, Little St. James Island, 8.3 m. 31. Hemipolygona carinifera (Lamarck, 1816). Shell erroneously labeled “ Latirus annulatus ” in Melvill-Tomlin Collection; NMWC photo. 32 – 37. Pustulatirus utilaensis new species. 32 – 34. Holotype, ANSP 449739, 29.2 mm, off Sandy Key Reef, Utila, Honduras. 35. Paratype, ANSP 449664, 26.6 mm, southwest coast of Utila. 36 – 37. Paratype, ANSP 449659, 31.6 mm, Roatán.