New shelf and bathyal Philippine leptochitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora Lepidopleurida)
Author
Sirenko, Boris I.
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-11-16
4878
3
467
500
journal article
7950
10.11646/zootaxa.4878.3.3
b9c711ba-146d-447b-ac2d-e1a0fcce0053
1175-5326
4425178
B660B3B2-7D4A-44C4-92C9-4BE24A1EA950
Leptochiton belknapi
Dall, 1878
Reports of
Leptochiton belknapi
from the
Philippines
(off Luzon Island and South of Mindanao Island (
Haddon 1886
;
Kaas 1990
) are erroneous.
Sirenko & Sellanes (2016)
showed that
L. belknapi
sensu stricto
occurs in the Pacific Ocean from Hokkaido (
40°12’N
), via the Sea of Okhotsk into the Bering Sea, and in North and South America’s Pacific waters southwards to
42°40’S
, at depths of
100 to 3724 m
. The closest deep-sea relatives of the Philippine specimens that were assigned to
L. belknapi
are
L. simplex
(
Nierstrasz, 1905
)
from the Makassar Strait and
L. giganteus
(
Nierstrasz, 1905
)
from the Banda Sea. These two species were synonymized as either
L. alveolus
(M. Sars MS,
Lovén, 1846
)
(e.g.,
Ferreira 1979
;
Kaas & Van Belle 1985
) and or as
L. belknapi
(e.g.,
Kaas & Van Belle 1987
).
Sirenko (2015)
already discussed that the
L. belknapi
group comprises several taxa that should be considered valid including
L. giganteus
that differs from
L. belknapi
by having the width of the jugal sinus almost equal to the width of the apophyses (whereas the width of the jugal sinus is much wider than the apophyses in
L. belknapi
) and by having dorsal scales without ribs.
Leptochiton simplex
was treated as a synonym of
Leptochiton japonicus
(
Thiele, 1909
)
by
Sirenko (2015)
but is here re-instated as valid species, which differs from
L. belknapi
by having dorsal scales with 6 ribs (vs. 2–3 ribs in
L. belknapi
). I suggest to preliminarily call specimens that have been identified as
L. belknapi
in the above-mentioned works
L.
?
belknapi
until these specimens can be studied in more detail.