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Type: Articles
Published: 2009-09-30
Page range: 155–173
Abstract views: 70
PDF downloaded: 0

The Recent Coralliophilinae of the New Zealand region, with descriptions of two new species (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda: Muricidae)

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, P.O. Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand.
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell’Uomo, “La Sapienza” Rome University, Viale dell’Università 32, I-00185 Roma, Italy.
Mollusca Babelomurex Coralliophila Emozamia Hirtomurex Latiaxis Leptoconchus Magilus Mipus Rhizochilus taxonomy

Abstract

The twenty Recent species of the muricid subfamily Coralliophilinae known from the New Zealand region are recorded and illustrated. The following eight species are reported for the first time from New Zealand: Babelomurex nakamigawai (Kuroda, 1959), Coralliophila sp. aff. sertata, C. solutistoma Kuroda & Shikama in Shikama, 1966, Hirtomurex marshalli Oliverio, 2008, Latiaxis pilsbryi Hirase, 1908, Leptoconchus sp., Mipus matsumotoi Kosuge, 1985 and Rhizochilus sp. cf. antipathum Steenstrup, 1850. The species previously recorded as Neothais clathrata (A. Adams, 1854) from New Zealand is actually Coralliophila squamosissima (E.A. Smith, 1876). Two new species are described from bathyal depths: Hirtomurex tangaroa n. sp., and Hirtomurex taranui n. sp. Four species (Coralliophila sertata (Hedley, 1903), C. sp. aff. sertata, Hirtomurex tangaroa n. sp. and H. taranui n. sp.) are restricted to the South-West Pacific, with the latter three possibly endemic to the New Zealand region. All the New Zealand species have planktotrophic development, and 60% of them live in deep water.