Revision of the genus Turris Batsch, 1789 (Gastropoda: Conoidea: Turridae) with the description of six new species
Author
Kilburn, Richard N.
Author
Fedosov, Alexander E.
Author
Olivera, Baldomero M.
text
Zootaxa
2012
2012-03-22
3244
1
1
58
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3244.1.1
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3244.1.1
20d1b63e-e569-489f-8e0a-165ae81b3204
1175-5326
246329
Turris
Batsch, 1789
Type species (s.d.
Dubois & Bour 2010
):
Murex babylonius
, 1758
.
Synonym:
Annulaturris
Powell, 1966
. Type species (o.d.):
Pleurotoma amicta
E. A. Smith, 1877
.
DESCRIPTION: Shell medium to large (adult length
40–185 mm
), fusiform with high spire and long, unnotched siphonal canal; anal sinus a deep slot situated on a ridge immediately above the peripheral keel; sculpture of spiral cords or ridges, sinus cord often crenulated. Usually with brown spots or stripes. Protoconch usually minute and papilliform, of 2–5 whorls, smooth, later whorls usually axially ribbed; in some species large and bulbous, of 1.5–2.0 smooth whorls. Operculum ungulate, typical of
Turrinae
.
Radula of duplex marginal teeth, varying considerably in shape, sometimes with a quadrate central tooth bearing a small to large median cusp.
Turris
is a tropical Indo-West Pacific group with only one temperate water species (the South African
Turris faleiroi
Kilburn, 1998
). No species of
Turris
occur in the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea.
The genus
Turris
was distinguished by
Powell (1964
,
1966
) from the very similar genus
Lophiotoma
Casey, 1904
, on the basis of the anal sinus being situated on a ”special” spiral cord, not on the peripheral cord as in the latter. This convention is followed here, although this difference hinges solely on the relative strength of the two cords, a character not always clearly defined. We follow
Li & Li (2007)
in leaving the status of
Annulaturris
in abeyance, pending more extensive radula studies.