Okutanius, Kantor & Fedosov & Snyder & Bouchet, 2018

Kantor, Yuri I., Fedosov, Alexander E., Snyder, Martin Avery & Bouchet, Philippe, 2018, Pseudolatirus Bellardi, 1884 revisited, with the description of two new genera and five new species (Neogastropoda: Fasciolariidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 433, pp. 1-57 : 36-37

Okutanius gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FAE994AB-DCBE-4436-BBAD-2D1283674F12

Type species

Fusolatirus kuroseanus Okutani, 1975 , here designated.

Diagnosis

Shell medium-size, reaching 30 mm, fusiform to broad fusiform, strong, with spiral colour bands. Teleoconch whorls evenly strongly convex, shell base sharply narrowing towards long, weakly sinuous siphonal canal. Protoconch multispiral, of 3–3.75 whorls. Axial sculpture of distinct broad, weakly opisthocline, closely spaced ribs. Spiral sculpture of distinct primary cords, subequal in size, and much thinner cordlets between them. Aperture narrow, oval, relatively small, columella with several weak plicae. No distinct parietal knob.

Operculum spans entire aperture, with terminal nucleus.

Lateral teeth with five closely spaced, slightly curved cusps and much smaller, but distinct, innermost cusp. Outermost very short small cusp present, but usually overlaid by large next cusp and not seen in dorsal view. Central tooth small, narrow, trapezoid, with three cusps. Narrow but distinct transverse folds of membrane situated serially between rows of lateral teeth.

Etymology

The genus is named after Takashi Okutani in recognition of his lifelong contribution to malacology, including the description of the type species of the genus. The gender is masculine.

Differential diagnosis

Okutanius gen. nov. is very similar to Granulifusus and conchological and morphological characters overlap at least in some species. Species of Okutanius gen. nov. do not reach as large size as in Granulifusus . Nevertheless, without molecular data, it would be difficult to suggest the existence of two clearly separate genera.

Genus composition

In addition to two sequenced species, O. kuroseanus and O. ellenae sp. nov., we allocate Pseudolatirus aikeni Lussi, 2014 , known from empty shell only, to Okutanius gen. nov. based on shell similarity to sequenced O. kuroseanus .