Henrya (?) sp.

Albano, Paolo G., Steger, Jan, Bakker, Piet A. J., Bogi, Cesare, Bosnjak, Marija, Guy-Haim, Tamar, Huseyinoglu, Mehmet Fatih, LaFollette, Patrick I., Lubinevsky, Hadas, Mulas, Martina, Stockinger, Martina, Azzarone, Michele & Sabelli, Bruno, 2021, Numerous new records of tropical non-indigenous species in the Eastern Mediterranean highlight the challenges of their recognition and identification, ZooKeys 1010, pp. 1-95 : 1

Henrya (?) sp. Figure 21

New records.

Israel • 1 spcm; Palmachim; 31.9574°N, 34.6645°E; depth 36.2 m; 24 May 2017; soft substrate; box-corer; Shafdan project (sample 24(B)); size: H 1.6 mm, W 0.8 mm.

Remarks.

We were unable to assign this species to any Mediterranean or Indo-Pacific species, despite its conspicuous combination of shell characters. Our single specimen has an elongated, pupoid shell with convex whorls, a narrow but deeply incised suture, and a heterostrophic protoconch of type B (diameter: 250 µm). The surface is glossy and smooth except for densely spaced, very fine growth lines. The latter are straight, slightly prosocline on the spire, becoming orthocline near the aperture. The aperture is drop-shaped with a simple, thin lip that is slightly reflected at the columella. An umbilical chink is present. The shell is translucid-white, ornamented with a single, broad, light brown spiral color band. The shell morphology is similar to species of the murchisonellid genus Henrya Bartsch, 1947. However, the three currently known species of that genus were described form the tropical West Atlantic (Florida, Bahamas, and Yucatan) ( Bartsch 1947), and none of them has a brown color band. For these reasons, the lack of anatomical and molecular data, and the fact that only a single specimen was available for study, we refrained from a definitive generic assignment. This species is potentially another non-indigenous one originating from the Indo-Pacific.

Among Mediterranean gastropods, the shell shape somewhat resembles the iravadiid Hyala vitrea (Montagu, 1803), however, the semi-immersed protoconch and brown color band of Henrya (?) sp. immediately set it apart. The heterobranch Cima minima (Jeffreys, 1858) is smaller, has a more concial shape, flexuous growth lines, and also lacks the brown band (van Aartsen 1981; Gofas et al. 2011; Scaperrotta et al. 2012; Giannuzzi-Savelli et al. 2014).

Figures

Figure 21. Henrya (?) sp., Palmachim, Israel, Shafdan project (sample 24 (B )): front (A, B), side (C, D) and back (E, F) views, apex (G) and apical view of the protoconch (H). Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A-F); 0.2 mm (G, H).