Hirtomurex sp. A

Oliverio, Marco, 2008, Coralliophilinae (Neogastropoda: Muricidae) from the southwest Pacific, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 196, pp. 481-586 : 552-553

Hirtomurex sp. A

Fig. 110

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia proper. BATHUS 2: 537 m, 1 dd . — SMIB 8: stn 146-147, 24°55’S, 168°22’E, 508- stn CP 743, Passe de Boulari , 22°36’S, 166°26’E, 713-950 m, 1 532 m, 1 lv (uncertain identification) .

dd (dd juv). Loyalty Ridge. MUSORSTOM 6: stn CP 438, 20°23’S, 166°20’E, Norfolk Ridge. SMIB 3: stn DW 2, 24°53’ S, 168°22’ E, 530- 780 m, 2 dd (Fig. 110).

DISTRIBUTION. — Southern Japan (Tsuchiya 2000: 409, fig. 234). Present material from southern New Caledonia, Loyalty Ridge and Norfolk Ridge, shells only in 537-780 m, with a record of uncertain identification from Norfolk Ridge, live in 508-532 m.

REMARKS. — The present material is concordant with specimens from New Zealand that will be described elsewhere (Marshall & Oliverio in preparation). This species has been confused in some collections with Hirtomurex kawamurai (Shikama, 1978) from which it differs in its less constricted base and more stepped spire. Hitomurex sp. A has a multispiral protoconch (3 whorls).