Vexillum Röding, 1798

Harzhauser, Mathias & Landau, Bernard, 2021, An overlooked diversity-the Costellariidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) of the Miocene Paratethys Sea, Zootaxa 4982 (1), pp. 1-70 : 47-48

Genus Vexillum Röding, 1798

Type species. Vexillum plicatum Röding, 1798 (= Voluta plicarium Linnaeus, 1758 ), subsequent designation by Woodring (1928: 244), Present-day, Indo-West Pacific.

Description. “ Shell small to medium-sized, fusiform or broadly fusiform to turriform, ovate or biconical; spire very tall to low. Protoconch tall, conical, with three or more evenly convex glossy whorls. Teleoconch whorls evenly convex to subcylindrical or with flattened outline, typically distinctly shouldered. Sculpture dominated by axial elements, represented by ribs of varying strength, sharp or rounded, usually slightly undulating. Spiral sculpture variable, absent in some species, in others represented by fine, evenly spaced grooves, pronounced between axial ribs, or throughout shell surface, overriding axial ribs. Siphonal canal short to very long, straight and tapering or recurved at its tip, notched at its end. Aperture elongate, narrow; outer aperture lip lirate within, sometimes with strong denticles formed by lirae at outer lip’s edge. Inner aperture lip with three or four distinct, sometimes very strong columellar folds, uppermost fold strongest ” ( Fedosov et al., 2017: 617).

Synonyms of relevance for Paratethyan faunas (see Fedosov et al., 2017 for full list):

Callithea Swainson, 1840 [non Feisthamel, 1835], type species: Mitra sanguisuga Linnaeus, 1758 , subsequent designation by Herrmannsen (1846: 155); present-day, West Pacific.

Costellaria Swainson, 1840 , type species: Mitra rigida Swainson, 1821 , by monotypy; present-day, Indo-West Pacific.

Tiara Swainson, 1831 , type species: Mitra corrugata Lamarck, 1811 , subsequent designation by Gray (1847: 142); present-day, Indo-West Pacific.

Turricula H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 [non Schumacher, 1817], type species: Voluta vulpecula Linnaeus, 1758 , subsequent designation by Cossmann (1899: 162); present-day, Indo-West Pacific.

Uromitra Bellardi, 1887 , type species: Uromitra antegressa Bellardi, 1887 ( Bellardi, 1887b: 23) , subsequent designation by Harris (1897: 125); Oligocene, Italy.

Key to Paratethyan Vexillum species :

1. Shell, relatively squat, scalate............................................................. V. pseudoschafferi - Shell slender fusiform.................................................................................. 2 2. Axial and spiral sculpture..................................................................... V. michelotti - Sculpture absent on early whorls............................................................... V. szobbiensis - Axial sculpture only................................................................................... 3 3. Axials persist on all whorls (in most specimens)............................................................. 4 - Axials weak or obsolete early and late whorls, developed mid-whorls.................................... V. badensis - Axials weak on late whorls...................................................................... V. harmati 4. Shell very narrow, early ribs opisthocline........................................................ V. intermittens - Shell slightly broader, early ribs orthocline............................................... V. transalpinum nov. sp. - Whorl profile coronate adapically above subsutural groove............................ V. nitidum sensu Schaffer, 1898