Polygona infundibulum ( Gmelin, 1791 )

Lyons, William G. & Snyder, Martin Avery, 2019, Fasciolariidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) of French Guiana and nearby regions, with descriptions of two new species and comments on marine zoogeography of northeastern South America, Zootaxa 4585 (2), pp. 239-268 : 259-260

Polygona infundibulum ( Gmelin, 1791)

Murex infundibulum Gmelin, 1791: 3554 , 3555; Mawe, 1823: 137 (West Indies).

Turbinella infundibulum: Jay, 1839: 76 (Antilles) ; Kiener, 1840: pl. 14, fig. 1; 1841: 27, 28, 50 (la mer des Antilles, Martinique); d'Orbigny, 1847: 178 ( Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint Lucia).

(?) Turbinellus infundibulum: Guppy, 1877: 142 (Gulf of Paria); Guppy, 1895: 133 (Gulf of Paria).

Latirus infundibulum: Higgins, 1877: 417 ( Colombia) ; Dautzenberg, 1900: 34 (Îles Testigos, Venezuela); Maury, 1917: 246 ( St. Lucia); Verrill, 1949: 11 ( Dominica); Coomans, 1958: 49, 93 ( Aruba); De Brauwer & Wellens, 1981: 16 ( St. Vincent); Pointier et al., 1982: 9 ( Guadeloupe); Princz, 1982: 123 ( Venezuela, Trinidad and lower Netherlands Antilles); Bertsch, 1987: 25 ( Grenada); Lyons, 1991: 184, figs. 67–68 ( Tobago); Díaz et al., 1992: 194 ( Colombia); Díaz & Puyana, 1994: 196, pl. 60, fig. 756 ( Colombia); Díaz, 1995: 118 (pars; southern Caribbean region); Capelo & Buitrago, 1998: 132 ( Venezuela); Pointier & Lamy, 1998: 133, figs. (French Antilles); Hutsell et al., 1999: 44 ( Barbados); Massemin et al., 2009: 153, 156, 157, figs. ( Guyane); Daccarett & Bossio, 2011: 101, 260, fig. 508 ( Colombia); Berschauer & Ros, 2014: 58 ( Aruba); Mallard & Robin, 2017: 273, figs. 1–7 (eastern Florida to northern Gulf of Mexico and Lesser Antilles to around Espirito Santo, Brazil); non Latirus infundibulum auct., most records south from Trinidad, = P. bernadensis or P. lactea .

Polygona infundibulum: Vermeij & Snyder, 2006: 418 –420, fig. 3K (Caribbean, Recent; species reclassified in Polygona); Lamy & Pointier, 2017: 318, 320, pl. 103, figs. 9a, b (French Antilles, 1–10 m; 75 mm shell from Guadeloupe figured; range (pars) Florida, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. Barthelemy, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Venezuela),

Types. Not designated; name introduced for specimens figured by Lister (1688: pl. 921, fig. 14), Buonanni (1684: fig. 104), Seba (1758: pl. 50, fig. 54) and Chemnitz (1780: 143, vign. 38, fig. A) ( Gmelin, 1791: 3554, 3555).

Type locality. Named without locality, the species was often mentioned in early molluscan literature, but the first effort we found to “localize” the name was by Mawe (1823: 137), who mentioned “West Indies.” Jay (1839: 76) cited the species from the “Antilles,” and Kiener (1841 in 1840–41: 28) narrowed that to “la mer des Antilles, sur les côtes de la Martinique.” We propose Martinique as the type locality, as the species is well known to occur there (e.g. Lamy & Pointier 2017: 320).

Material examined. 111 specimens, lv and dd, 29.7–96.0 mm, from Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean Sea , all LC, including: St. Vincent— 1-lv, 83.6 mm, Wynn Bay , 24.4 m; 1-lv, 91.6 mm, off west coast, 6.1–9.2 m. Tobago —1-lv, 56.5 mm, off Crown Point , 27.5 m; 1-lv, 46.4 mm, off Crown Point , 27.5–30.5 m; 1-lv, 59.6 mm, “ Tobago,” 29.0 m. Curação, Netherlands Antilles —2-lv, both 71.1 mm, Barbara Beach , 3 m; 2-lv, 65.5 and 68.0 mm, 1-dd, 65.4 mm, Barbara Beach , 22.9 m; 1-lv, 73.4 mm, 1-dd, 84.5 mm, Barbara Beach ; 2-lv, 64.2 and 69.7 mm, Spaanse Water. Venezuela— 1-lv, 69.5 mm, Amuay Bay ; 1-dd, 48.7 mm, Caribbean coast. Colombia— 1-lv, 45.0 mm, off Cabo la Vela , Guajira , 20 m; 2-lv, 77.5 and 79.4 mm, “off northern Colombia,” 61.0 m .

Remarks. Murex infundibulum was introduced for shells figured by Lister, Buonanni, Seba and Chemnitz (see “ Types,” above); repositories of all of those shells are unknown. Lister’s figure is reversed and somewhat ambiguous, but the other figures, all depicting a fusiform shell with distinctive dark spiral cords, are sufficiently precise to associate them with the western Atlantic species now called Polygona infundibulum . Typical specimens are orange or orange-brown, with dark brown spiral cords that encircle the shell throughout its length. See Remarks with P. bernadensis for other differences between that species and P. infundibulum .

In their account of “ Latirus ” infundibulum, Massemin et al. (2009) provided three figures: the left and center figures are of an 82 mm shell labeled “ Guyane,” stated in text to be “a single empty shell ... given to the authors,” from a depth “around 60 meters;” the right figure is of a typical shell from Guadeloupe provided for comparison. The Guyane specimen appears to be old, bleached and not readily identifiable as P. infundibulum . Ribs on the body whorl seem worn and lack evidence of spiral cords, and the shell is completely white except for darker hues that could represent vestiges of periostracum or grime, but these features seem to be an artifact of printing. The Association Française de Conchyliologie (AFC) website http://www.xenophora.org/webcomp/ webcomp_index.php?TaxonId=1528#1528 provides better pictures of the same shell that reveal it to be a worn specimen with typical markings of P. infundibulum .

This specimen of uncertain provenance is the only evidence we have seen that P. infundibulum occurs south of Trinidad. The species is well-documented from eastern Florida and the western Gulf of Mexico southward along both sides of the Caribbean Sea to the Lesser Antilles, Colombia and Venezuela. The southernmost reliable record is difficult to ascertain because some reports are not accompanied by figures. For example, Guppy (1877, 1895) reported the species from the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad; however, the somewhat similar P. bernadensis also occurs at Trinidad so Guppy’s reports cannot be accepted with certainty. The southernmost record we can verify with confidence is of three specimens (46.4–59.6 mm sl; depths 27.5–30.5 m) from Tobago in the Lyons collection. We regard other reports of P. infundibulum from the Guianas and Brazil as probable errors for P. bernadensis or P. lactea .