Aspella media Houart, 1987

Houart, Roland & Héros, Virginie, 2008, Muricidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Fiji and Tonga, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 196, pp. 437-480 : 449

Aspella media Houart, 1987

Aspella media Houart, 1987 a: 202 , figs 1, 10-11.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Fiji. MUSORSTOM 10: stn CP 1366, 33 m, 1 dd (damaged); stn DW 74, 17°49’S, 177°12’E, 38 m, 1 18°12’S, 178°33’E, 149-168 m, 2 dd; stn CP 1369, 18°11’S, dd (damaged) . — BORDAU 1: stn CP 1394, 16°45’S, 179°59’E, 178°23’E, 392-433 m, 1 dd; stn DW 1384, 18°19’S, 178°06’E, 416 m, 1 dd.

260-305 m, 2 dd. — SUVA 2: stn DW 44, 17°52’S, 177°13’E,

DISTRIBUTION. — Philippines, Guam, New Caledonia and Fiji (new record), shells in 33-416 m.

REMARKS. — Originally described from southern New Caledonia, in 59-62 m, Aspella media probably occurs throughout the western Pacific. Aspella was and still is a rather difficult group of poorly known species. There were only 6 Recent species known prior to the description of 7 new ones by Radwin & D’Attilio (1976). Since then another 5 species have been discovered and described, bringing the total of Recent Aspella species worldwide to 18, of which 9 are Indo-Pacific. The species are distinguished by their protoconch morphology, by the intritacalx, a chalky layer described by D’Attilio & Radwin (1971), and by a few other shell characters (axial and spiral sculpture, shape).