Metalycaeus muciferus (Heude, 1885)

Pall-Gergely, Barna, Sajan, Sheikh, Tripathy, Basudev, Meng, Kaibaryer, Asami, Takahiro & Ablett, Jonathan D., 2020, Genus-level revision of the Alycaeidae (Gastropoda, Cyclophoroidea), with an annotated species catalogue, ZooKeys 981, pp. 1-220 : 1

Metalycaeus muciferus (Heude, 1885) Fig. 33

Alycoeus [sic] muciferus Heude, 1885: 96, pl. 24, figs 1, 1a.

Alycaeus (Orthalycaeus) muciferus - Möllendorff 1886: 171.

Alycaeus helicodes Gredler, 1888: 365.

Alycaeus expansus Heude, 1890: 129, pl. 38, fig. 2. syn. nov.

Alycaeus (Chamalycaeus) muciferus - Kobelt and Möllendorff 1897: 149; Kobelt 1902: 359.

Metalycaeus muciferus - Páll-Gergely et al. 2017: 88-93, figs 58, 59, 60, 61 ( helicodes Gredler is a synonym).

" Chamalycaeus " expansus - Páll-Gergely et al. 2017: 105, fig. 69L.

Type locality.

"in ditione Tchen-k’eou” ( Alycoeus muciferus ); Pe-shang, Prov. Hunan ( A. helicodes ); "Tchen K’eou” ( A. expansus ).

Material examined.

China, Tchen-k’eou, MCZ 167230 (7 syntypes of A. muciferus ); Tchen-k’eou, China, Pe-shang, Hunan, leg. Fuchs, coll. Gredler, SMF 192225 (2 paralectotypes of A. helicodes , lectotype in the Franziskanergymnasium Bozen [Bolzano, Italy], designated by Zilch 1974); HMT-215a, syntype: labelled as lectotype of A. expansus deposited in IZCAS: Tchen-k’eou (Cheng-kou County, Chong-qing, China) (Fig. 33 ).

Remarks.

Protoconch conspicuously elevated from dorsal surface, its end with inconspicuous spiral striations; R1 with irregular, widely spaced ribs and fine spiral sculpture; R2 with dense, sharp, elevated ribs.

No type specimens of Alycaeus expansus were reported in American museums ( Johnson 1973). We were not able to examine the types deposited in the Beijing Museum before the revision of Chinese Alycaeidae ( Páll-Gergely et al. 2017), but could do so now. The general shell shape, colour, sculpture, and the lengths and proportions of R2 and R3 agree with those of A. muciferus , which was described from the same type locality. Consequently, we move Alycaeus expansus to the synonymy of A. muciferus .

Figures

Figure 33. Alycaeus expansus Heude, 1890, syntype (HMT- 215 a; synonym of Metalycaeus muciferus (Heude, 1885 )). Photographs: Kaibaryer Meng.