Volutella Perry, 1810

Vermeij, Geerat J., 2024, Shell-based genus-level reclassification of the Family Vasidae (Mollusca: Neogastropoda), Zootaxa 5405 (4), pp. 526-544 : 537-538

Genus Volutella Perry, 1810

Type species. Volutella divergens Perry, 1810 , = Voluta muricata Born, 1778 (see Mathews & Iredale 1912; Abbott 1950; Vokes 1966), Recent, Caribbean Sea ( Fig. 7 ).

Diagnosis. Shell small to large, 26 to 149 mm in length, thick-walled and solid; spire low; sutures indistinct; last whorl conical, not basally constricted; axial sculpture consisting of short rounded ribs, which on the upper part of the last whorl bear two spiral rows of low to high rounded tubercles; base of last whorl with two spiral rows of short tubercles; umbilical fissure present; aperture narrow, outer lip with polished edge but not glazed on abapertural side; inner side of outer lip usually smooth; columella with three to five folds; posterior end of aperture not flaring or forming lobe; siphonal canal moderately long, its tip dorsally recurved.

Included species. Volutella caestus ( Broderip, 1833) , eastern Pacific; V. floridana ( McGinty, 1940) , Pleistocene, Florida; V. muricata ( Born, 1778) , tropical Caribbean; V. pufferi ( Emerson, 1964) , Late Miocene, California; V. haitensis (G.B. Wowerby 11, 1850), Miocene, Caribbean; V. tribulosa (Vokes, 1970) , Early Miocene, Florida; V. sp. of Vokes 1970, 1998, earliest Miocene, Florida.

Material examined. Volutella caestus, CAS Panama Bay, Panama; Ecuador; Braxilito, Costa Rica; Vermeij collection Playa Brava, Santiago, Panama. V. floridana : Vermeij collection, GK.K Pit, Palm Beach County, Florida. V. haitensis : UCMP 122795, Cantaure Formation, Venezuela. V. muricata : Vermeij collection: Cahuita, Costa Rica; Discovery Bay, Jamaica; Pear Tree Bottom, Runaway Bay, Jamaica; Rio Bueno, Jamaica. V. pufferi : CAS paratype, Imperial Formation, California.

Remarks. Abbott (1950) fixed the type species of Volutella as Volutella divergens , a species that he (Abbott 1959) and others determined to be a junior subjective synonym of Voluta muricata Born 1778 (see also Mathews & Ireda1e 1912; Vokes 1966). All these authors considered Volutella a synonym of Vasum , but with the type designation of Voluta muricata it is possible to distinguish Volutella as a distinct genus from tropical America that is morphologically separable from the Indo-West Pacific Vasum .

The genus Volutella differs from Vasum as restricted in this paper by the presence of an umbilical fissure, which is absent in Vasum ; the outer lip’s edge but not its abapertural side glazed; and the smooth inner side of the outer lip, whereas in Vasum it is lirate to at least some extent in most specimens. The spiral cords on the shell’s central sector in Volutella are not nodose as they are in Vasum .

As noted in the discussion of Globivasum, Abbott (1950) recognized that his Vasum muricatum (here Volutella ) differs from his Vasum (Altivasum) capitellus (here Globivasum ). Compared with Volutella , species of Globivasum as interpreted here differ by having a higher spire, a lirate outer lip, three columellar folds, and often a widely open umbilicus. G. globulus , the type species of Globivasum , has very short, denticle-like lirae on the inner side of the outer lip and a nearly closed umbilicus, but its close relative G. whicheri connects this form with more typical members of Globivasum .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Volutella muricata (Born, 1778) in dorsal (A) and apertural (B) views. Discovery Bay, Jamaica, Vermeij Collection.