Thieleella Bandel, 1998

Geiger, Daniel L. & Jansen, Patty, 2004, Revision of the Australian species of Anatomidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda), Zootaxa 415 (415), pp. 1-35 : 26

Thieleella Bandel, 1998

Thieleella Bandel, 1998: 35 .

+ Pagodella Bandel, 1998: 2 . [nomen nudum].

Type species. Scissurella amoena Thiele, 1912 (OD).

Etymology. Named after Johannes Thiele (1860–1935: Bieler & Boss, 1991).

Description. Identical to Anatoma , but protoconch with reticulate sculpture.

Differential diagnosis. Thieleella has a protoconch with honeycomb pattern, whereas Anatoma is either smooth or with flocculent ornamentation. It is virtually impossible to distinguish members of these two genera under the light microscope.

The recognition of Thieleella as distinct from Anatoma is debatable. There is only a single character, protoconch sculpture, that separates the two genera. In an exploratory phylogenetic analysis of shell and limited radular characters (no radular data available for any Thieleella species ), the Thieleella species grouped together as a grade (Geiger, 2003). Additionally, in Scissurellinae , protoconch sculpture was demonstrated to be highly homoplastic, casting further doubt on the diagnostic value of protoconch sculpture used to recognize Thieleella . Thieleella is tentatively retained in agreement with actions taken by an other recent author ( Marshall, 2002).