The (almost) unknown Italian naturalist Raffaello Bellini (1874 - 1930): biography malacological publications, and status of his recent molluscan taxa
Author
Fasulo, Giuseppe
Author
Duraccio, Sergio
Author
Federico, Antonio
Author
Crocetta, Fabio
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-09-11
4668
3
343
369
journal article
25478
10.11646/zootaxa.4668.3.3
911ecd53-56b9-4c32-b948-7aec22113775
1175-5326
3449562
DC193332-6762-47B2-B2E6-C5949D56D41E
Trochocochlea castriotae
Bellini, 1903a: 23–24
, figs. 3a–b
(
Fig. 3E
)
Type
locality:
Mar Morto
(
Miseno
,
Bacoli
,
Tyrrhenian Sea
,
Italy
)
.
Original description:
“nettamente distinta dalla precedente specie e facilmente riconoscibile per i giri turricolati e la sutura canalicolata. Caratteri dell’animale, grandezza e colorazione come nella
T. turbinata
, di cui non saprei ritenerla né una varietà, né un’alterazione” [clearly distinct from the previous species—
Phorcus turbinatus
(Born, 1778)
, reported as
Trochocochlea turbinata
Brug.
—due to the turriculated whorls and the canaliculate suture of the shell. Animal features, sizes, and color as in
P. turbinatus
, of which it—
T. castriotae
—is not a
variety nor
an aberration].
Remarks:
considered a junior synonym of
Gibbula albida
(
Gmelin, 1791
)
by
Crocetta
et al.
(2013)
, with whom we agree due to the shell characters shown in the figure alleged to its description (
Fig. 3E
).
Trochocochlea castriotae
was skipped by
Bellini (1929a)
in the general overview of the marine molluscan species living in the Gulf of Naples, presumably due to the fact that he encountered this taxon again during samplings held in
1926 in
Lido di Venezia (
Italy
), when he correctly labelled it as
Gibbula
(
Magulus
)
biasoletti
(Phil.)
(MCCIC—drawer 189, not numbered), a junior synonym of
G. albida
(Molluscabase 2019b)
(
Fig. 3F
). However, it is unclear why he did not even report it under this binomial name.
Gibbula albida
was found during early samplings held in Miseno (see
Ghisotti 1974
;
Cretella
et al.
1976
), but not recently (
2011–2018
: authors’ unpublished data). It presumably did not survive the anthropogenic changes to which the area has been subjected in the last century. Alternatively, it may have been introduced with Adriatic oysters or mussels as already speculated for other records of this taxon in the western Mediterranean (
Ghisotti & Melone 1972
), and then did not establish locally. However, we found no published traces and are not aware of any shellfish introduction in Miseno or the nearby lake (Miseno Lake) during past centuries.