Profundiconus barazeri, Tenorio & Castelin, 2016

Tenorio, Manuel J. & Castelin, Magalie, 2016, Genus Profundiconus Kuroda, 1956 (Gastropoda, Conoidea): Morphological and molecular studies, with the description of five new species from the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, European Journal of Taxonomy 173, pp. 1-45 : 25-28

Profundiconus barazeri sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3D0659AE-4433-41C4-B03A-BFED9523E1EE

Figs 10 , 11A–G, K

Profundiconus n. sp. b – Puillandre et al. 2014: Supplementary Material 1 (unfigured).

Etymology

At the request of Prof. Philippe Bouchet from MNHN, this new species is named after Captain Jean- François Barazer, first captain on IRD’s research vessel Alis, in recognition of his dedication to, and expertise in, deep-sea exploration in the South and West Pacific. Many new species have been discovered during the cruises that he has skilfully commanded.

Material examined

Holotype NEW CALEDONIA: 11.6 × 7.0 mm, R/V Alis, EBISCO Expedition, st. DW 2564, NW Bellona Reef, Plateau des Chesterfield , 20°25' S, 158°41' E, 333–386 m ( MNHN IM-2007-30760 ; Fig. 11A; GenBank accession number (cox1 sequence): KJ550111 ).

Paratypes

NEW CALEDONIA: 14.5 × 8.6 mm, collecting data as for holotype ( MNHN IM-2007-30924 ; paratype 1; Fig. 11B; GenBank accession number (cox1 sequence): KJ550112 ); 16.5 × 9.9 mm, R/V Alis, EBISCO Expedition, st. DW 2576, N Bellona Reef, Chesterfield , 20°20' S, 158°43' E, 390–394 m ( MNHN IM-2000-30790 ; paratype 2; Fig. 11 C); 10.3 × 6.2 mm, R/V Alis, CONCALIS Expedition, st. DW 2985, Grand Passage , Northern New Caledonia, 18°59' S, 163°06' E, 277–289 m ( MNHN IM-2000-30791 ; paratype 3; Fig. 11D); 10.6 × 5.5 mm, collecting data as for preceding ( MNHN IM- 2000-30792 ; paratype 4; Fig. 11E); 10.5 × 5.6 mm, R/V Alis, CONCALIS Expedition, st. DW 2979, Grand Passage , N New Caledonia, 18°16' S, 162°54' E, 350 m ( MNHN IM-2000-30777 ; paratype 5; Fig. 11G).

Type locality

NEW CALEDONIA: Coral Sea, NW Bellona Reef, Plateau des Chesterfield , 20°25' S, 158°41' E, 333– 386 m (EBISCO st. DW 2564).

Description

Morphometric parameters: S L = 10–15 mm; RD = 0.63–0.69; RSH = 0.11–0.19; PMD = 0.90–0.95.

Shell very small (maximum length 16.5 mm). Shell profile conical, with spire low to moderate in height. Spire profile straight. Shoulder angulated, with distinct rim. Last whorl with straight sides, smooth, with some grooves in basal quarter, which appears slightly deflected to the left. Protoconch white, porcellaneous, with 1.5 whorls ( Fig. 11F). Early teleoconch whorls with small nodules which are lost after whorl 3. Sutural ramp flat to slightly concave, slightly stepped, bearing 3–5 strong cords, with smooth ridge above suture. Spire white, with yellow-brown blotches on ridge above suture. Ground colour pale orange-brown to creamy white. Last whorl with pattern of pure white dashes and dots arranged in spiral lines, often alternating with dashes of orange-brown. Sparse small, diffuse rounded, orange-brown spots occasionally present. Holotype just below midbody with orange-brown narrow band overlaid with white dashes arranged in spiral, absent in other specimens examined, some of which are patternless. Columella and aperture white.

Radular tooth examined in holotype ( Fig. 11K) and paratype 1. 45 teeth in radular sac. Radular tooth of rather large relative size: its total length relative to shell length S L/T L = 26–30. Anterior portion much shorter than posterior section of tooth (T L/AP L = 3.7–3.8). With one barb and pointed, well-defined blade, which covers 48–61% of apical portion of tooth. External cusp present, extending between 80 and 96% of length of anterior portion of tooth. External cusp laterally widened and serrated, with 7–9 small denticles. Large adapical opening occupying most of anterior portion of tooth (100AO L/AP L = 64–70). With characteristic fringe of closely spaced projections pointing towards the apex located immediately below waist. Shaft fold present. Large and prominent basal spur on top of slanted base of tooth.

Distribution and habitat

Specimens from two separate populations in New Caledonia are known: from NW Bellona Reef, Plateau des Chesterfield (type locality), and from the Grand Passage area; at depths from 277 to 350 m ( Fig. 10 ).

Remarks

P. barazeri sp. nov. resembles in general aspect a small specimen of Boucheticonus alisi ( Fig. 11H). The latter has a larger shell, variably patterned, with a multispiral protoconch, which exhibits a characteristic brown blotch. The protoconch is paucispiral in P. barazeri sp. nov. These two species are phylogenetically distant ( Fig. 5 ) and have very different radular morphologies. In contrast to the tooth of P. barazeri sp. nov., the radular tooth of B. alisi ( Fig. 11L) is very large and elongated, with an extremely long anterior section that is more than four times longer than the posterior section of the tooth. It has a small and indistinct barb opposite a blade, which is enlarged and widened laterally. P. barazeri sp. nov. shows some similarities to P. zardoyai ( Fig. 11I) and to Continuconus estivali ( Moolenbeek & Richard, 1995) ( Fig. 11J). The scarce specimens available of the latter species come from the Chesterfield Reef area. C. estivali is also characterized by its small size and conical shape. However, the pattern of C. estivali is quite constant and consists of 6 to 8 fine brown spiral lines on a white background. The shoulder in C. estivali is sharply angulated to carinate instead of angulated, and the teleoconch whorls on its stepped spire are concave. P. barazeri sp. nov. lacks the large, globose protoconch of about 2 whorls, which constitutes one of the most relevant features of C. estivali . The species P. zardoyai , recently described from Grand Passage, North New Caledonia, has a similar size and ground colour, with a variable pattern. However, its shell usually has a higher spire (RSH = 0.14–0.23 versus 0.11–0.19 for barazeri ) of sigmoid profile rather than straight. Although their radular teeth look superficially similar, the tooth of P. barazeri sp. nov. ( Fig. 11K) has a larger relative size (S L/T L = 26–30 versus 33–40 for zardoyai ) and bears more denticles in the laterally widened external cusp (7–9 in barazeri sp. nov. versus 5–6 in zardoyai ). P. zardoyai and P. barazeri sp. nov. are phylogenetically distant ( Fig. 5 ).

Figures

Fig. 5. Likelihood phylogenetic tree of Profundiconus Kuroda, 1956 based on a subsample of the mitochondrial cox1 dataset produced by Puillandre et al. (2014). Posterior probabilities and bootstrap valuesare indicatedfor eachnode (whenPP± 0.95%and BP± 75%,respectively).Forclarity purposes, external branches of phylogenetically highly supported species are highlighted in red in the consensus tree.Cox1sequencesarelabelledusingtheMNHNvoucheridentificationnumber,theGenbankaccession number(when available), thespeciesnameand thenumberof specimens (oridentical haplotypes)when greater than 1.

Fig. 10. Distribution map for Profundiconus virginiae sp. nov. (red circles) and P. barazeri sp. nov. (yellow circles). Symbols indicate the points where each of the species have been collected.