Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832)

Caze, Bruno, Merle, Didier, Meur, Mathieu Le, Pacaud, Jean-Michel, Ledon, Daniel & Martin, Jean-Paul Saint, 2011, Taxonomic implications of the residual colour patterns of ampullinid gastropods and their contribution to the discrimination from naticids, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56 (2), pp. 329-347 : 334-336

Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832)

Fig. 3A–E .

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Early Eocene, Ypresian (Cuisian) (PB).

Colour pattern description.—The pattern consists of four levels of residual colouration. The background is heterogeneous with three spiral slightly fluorescent stripes, one on the adapical part, one on the median part and one on the adbasal parts of the whorl ( Fig. 3A ). The apex is pale and there are small fluorescent patches superimposed on the background ( Fig. 3A–C ). The transition between the levels of colouration of the background is diffuse. The background is homogeneously dark in some specimens ( Fig. 3B–E ). The small patches of varying size do not have a definite shape and their distribution is irregular ( Fig. 3B ). The coalescence of the patches sometimes produces fluorescent sinuous axial segments ( Fig. 3D, E ). This residual colour pattern is very similar to those of A. merciniensis ( Deshayes, 1864) ( Fig. 3F ) from the Ypresian (Cuisian) of the Paris Basin and Ampullina lignitara ( Deshayes, 1864) from the Ypresian (Sparnacian) of the Paris Basin and Hampshire Basin.

Comments.—Former authors ( Cossmann 1888; Wrigley 1946; Glibert 1963) considered the three species Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1824) , A. lignitara ( Deshayes, 1864) and Ampullina merciniensis (Deshayes, 1824) as belonging to the genus Crommium . In the original description of the genus, Cossmann (1888) however stated, that the sheath is absent whereas it occurs in each of the three aforementioned species. Thus, A. intermedia , A. lignitara , and A. merciniensis are, here, no longer considered to belong to the genus Crommium . Furthermore, these species with closely related doi:10.4202/app.2009.0084

shells, display very similar residual patterns. Consequently, our personal opinion is that the discrimination of these three species is probably not justified.

Figures

Fig. 3. Species of the genus Ampullina Bowdich, 1822, under UV light. A. Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832), MNHN A30418 (MNHN coll.), Cuise−la−Motte, Oise, France, Ypresian (Cuisian), in ventral (A1) and dorsal (A2) views. B. Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832), MNHN A30416 (MNHN coll.), Cuise−la−Motte, in ventral (B1) and dorsal (B2) views. C. Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832), MNHN A30415 (MNHN coll.), Cuisela−Motte, in labral view. D. Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832), MNHN A30417 (MNHN coll.), Cuise−Lamotte, in labral view. E. Ampullina intermedia (Deshayes, 1832), MNHN A30422 (d’Orbigny coll.), Cuise−Lamotte, in dorsal view. F. Ampullina merciniensis (Deshayes, 1864), MNHN J02199 (Cossmann coll.), Mercin−et−Vaulx, Aisne, France, Ypresian (Cuisian), in dorsal view. Scale bars 10 mm. Photographs by C. Lemzaouda and P. Loubry (MNHN).