Coralliophila carolae D’Attilio & Myers, 1984

Oliverio, Marco, 2008, Coralliophilinae (Neogastropoda: Muricidae) from the southwest Pacific, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 196, pp. 481-586 : 514

Coralliophila carolae D’Attilio & Myers, 1984

Figs 43, 162

Coralliophila carolae D’Attilio & Myers, 1984: 91 , figs 26-28.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype SDSNH 79505 , figured by Kosuge & Suzuki (1985, pl. 40, fig. 10).

TYPE LOCALITY. — Bohol Straits , Philippine Islands, 75-100 m depth .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia proper. LAGON: stn 933, Secteur de Koumac , 20°45’S, 164°15’E, 90-100 m, 1 lv (Figs 43, 162) .

DISTRIBUTION. — Indian Ocean: South Africa (Kosuge & Meyer 1999; Lussi & Brink 1999; Kosuge 2008). Pacific Ocean: from Kii Peninsula, Japan, to Philippines, “intertidal to 20 m ” (Higo et al. 1999; Tsuchiya 2000). One specimen from New Caledonia, live in 90-100 m. Range extension southward in the West Pacific .

REMARKS. — The single specimen assigned to Coralliophila carolae cannot be discriminated with certainty from C. pulchella . It is assigned here to C. carolae on the basis of the diagnostic features of the original descripion, i.e. a coloured shell (rather than withish as in C. pulchella ) and a finer sculpture than C. pulchella . The protoconch, similar to that described by D’Attilio & Myers (1984: fig. 28), is multispiral (2.5+ whorls) with 2 nodulose spiral cords crossed by weak axials. Doubts remain regarding the distinction of these two species.