Subgenus Masharikella Peters, Gillies & Edmunds, 1964 stat. nov.

Diagnosis.

Identical to the generic diagnosis, except that gill I is always composed of one dorsal lanceolate lamella and a large oval fimbriate ventral lamella.

Type species.

Masharikella fasciatus (Kimmins, 1956) by original designation.

Included species.

Thraulus (Masharikella) fasciatus (Kimmins, 1956), comb. nov. [Uganda, Zimbabwe], T. (M.) gopalani Grant & Sivaramakrishnan, 1985, comb. nov. [southern India], Th. (M.) iteris sp. nov. [Papua New Guinea], Th. (M.) johannisluci sp. nov. [Papua New Guinea], T. (M.) malabarensis Vasanth, Subramanian & Selvakumar, 2022, comb. nov. [southern India], T. (M.) opifer Grant, 2024, comb. nov. [northern Australia], Th. (M.) pascalae sp. nov. [Indonesia, Papua], Th. (M.) samueli sp. nov. [Papua New Guinea], T. (M.) thiagarajani Balasubramanian & Muthukatturaja, 2019, comb. nov. [southern India], and T. (M.) torrentis (Gillies, 1964), comb. nov. [Tanzania, Angola].

Distribution.

The subgenus exhibits a disjunct distribution in Africa, southern India, New Guinea, and northern Australia. Currently, it is surprisingly not recorded from Oriental southeast Asia, suggesting the species found in New Guinea originate from tropical Australia. This may indicate a Gondwanan origin for the subgenus. Its presence in Madagascar is expected but yet not proved.