Turbo anguliferoides Curtiss, 1938

Low, Martyn E. Y. & Tan, Siong Kiat, 2014, On the identities of the molluscan names described in A Short Zoology of Ta h i t i in the Society Islands by Anthony Curtiss in 1938 (Mollusca: Cephalopoda, Gastropoda), Zootaxa 3764 (3), pp. 394-400 : 397

Turbo anguliferoides Curtiss, 1938 , a possible synonym of Partula otaheitana (Bruguière, 1792)

Original description (pp. 190, 191). “The hermit-crab periwinkle, whose empty shell is often used by the small hermit-crabs, is a smooth-shelled sort, with the opening on the left of the shell, if you hold it with the opening upwards. There is no tail or division of the outer lip of the shell. The lip, however, is somewhat flat and smooth. The whorls of the shell are close together, with no openings between. The spire is proportionately longer than that of our periwinkle. Its color is very pale brownish. ( Turbo anguliferoides . (Near Tautira, in the sea.))”.

Identity. The identity of this “hermit-crab periwinkle” is not certain, but it is very likely to one of the arboreal snails of the genus Partula . It is clearly a sinistrally coiling shell (“opening on the left of the shell”), without a siphonal canal (“no tail or division of the outer lip”), has a somewhat expanded outer lip (lip... ...somewhat flat and smooth”), and lacks an umbilicus (“whorls... ...close together, with no openings between”). In addition, Curtiss’s observation that the shell is often used by hermit crabs without mention of its habitat suggests a terrestrial origin. The pale brownish colouration appears to fit what is known of the Partula otaheitana (Bruguière, 1792) group, with which we provisionally identify this name.