Coralliophila mitraeforma Kosuge, 1985

Oliverio, Marco, 2008, Coralliophilinae (Neogastropoda: Muricidae) from the southwest Pacific, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 196, pp. 481-586 : 512

Coralliophila mitraeforma Kosuge, 1985

Figs 37, 38, 159

Coralliophila mitraeforma Kosuge, 1985b: 56 , pl. 21, figs 1-2.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype IMT 85-21 [not seen], figured by Higo et al. (2001: 66, G2401).

TYPE LOCALITY. — Mactan, Cebu, Philippines .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Norfolk Ridge. SMIB 8: stn DW 157, 250 m, 2 dd (Figs 37, 38, 159).

24°46’S, 168°08’E, 235-300 m, 1 dd. Wallis and Futuna. MUSORSTOM 7: stn CP 505, Futuna Island, Loyalty Ridge.VOLSMAR: stn DW 41, 22°19’S, 168°41’E, 195- 14°19’S, 178°04’W, 245-400 m, 1 lv.

DISTRIBUTION. — Pacific Ocean: off Danjo Islands, Western Kyūshū (Higo et al. 1999: 217; Tsuchiya 2000). Norfolk Ridge, Loyalty Ridge, Wallis and Futuna, live in 245-400 m, empty shells in 235- 250 m. Southward range extension in the west Pacific.

REMARKS. — Protoconch, partly eroded, of 2.5+ conical whorls, 690+ Μm high, 770 Μm wide at the base. Protoconch- II with 2 spiral keels (the abapical one starting nearly 1 whorl before the adapical one), sculptured with a series of subsutural prosocline threads and a series of oblong tubercules over each keel; a diffuse granulation is present in the interspaces, and gives rise to spiral threadlets over the tubercles.

Specimens with a total height/apertural height (h/a) ratio greater than 1.7 are easily identified as C. mitraeforma . However, shells with a ratio of 1.7 or less can hardly be separated from slender specimens of C. solutistoma . A specimen from Futuna, collected at stn CP 505 together with a living specimen of C. mitraeforma , has been referred (above) to C. solutistoma on the basis of the low h/a ratio (1.5) and the pronounced shoulder angle.