A revision of the Neogene Conidae and Conorbidae (Gastropoda) of the Paratethys Sea
Author
Harzhauser, Mathias
Author
Landau, Bernard
text
Zootaxa
2016
4210
1
1
178
journal article
37280
10.11646/zootaxa.4210.1.1
e782e07d-76b7-4e9b-ba34-ed3286254ec6
1175-5326
252966
D39416B8-CF85-440B-84C2-D4380BECC4E3
Genus
Kalloconus
da
Motta, 1991
Type
species:
Conus pulcher
[
Lightfoot, 1786
], by original designation.
Recent
,
West Africa.
Note.
According to
Tucker & Tenorio (2009)
, the genus
Kalloconus
da
Motta, 1991
is characterised by large to very large and obconic shells, with a broad, rounded shoulder. The spire whorls can be smooth, striate with the sculpture disappearing on later whorls, or persisting as crowded, weak spirals. The protoconch is multispiral. The subsutural flexure is moderately deep to deep in larger specimens, and shallower in smaller specimens. The shell is ornamented with spots and dashes in spiral rows. In their molecular phylogeny,
Puillandre
et al
. (2014a)
recognised this group as being monophyletic, albeit at subgeneric level, and a sister group to
Lautoconus
. Both of these genera today have a West African and European distribution. However, whereas
Tucker & Tenorio (2009)
included only two extant species within the genus,
C. pulcher
[
Lightfoot, 1786
] and
C. byssinus
(Röding, 1798)
, the molecular phylogeny by
Puillandre
et al.
(2014a)
included six further species:
C. ateralbus
Kiener, 1850
,
C. genuanus
Linnaeus, 1758
,
C. trochulus
Reeve, 1844
,
C. venulatus
Hwass in
Bruguière, 1792
,
C. atlanticoselvagem
Afonso & Tenorio, 2004
and
Conus pseudonivifer
Monteiro, Tenorio & Poppe, 2004
. Although the molecular phylogenetics have led to a wider generic concept, the generic description of the shell remains unchanged.
Based on Paratethyan material here reviewed, we can add that
Kalloconus
species are small to very large, squat to moderately elongate. The spire is always low to very low; spire whorls are convex and usually smooth except for occasional striae on early spire whorls. The proto-Mediterranean
Kalloconus betulinoides
(
Lamarck, 1810
)
is a fossil species with striate spire whorls like the extant type species
Kalloconus pulcher
([
Lightfoot], 1786
). Spiral sculpture on last whorl very reduced. The depth of the subsutural flexures in all our fossil species is highly variable, ranging from very shallow to deep; they are usually moderately curved and moderately asymmetrical. The last whorl is of medium to wide width. As with the living species, the colour pattern in most of the fossil representatives is also composed of spiral rows of spots and dashes; only few species develop continuous spirals.