Patella tahitica Curtiss, 1938

Low, Martyn E. Y. & Tan, Siong Kiat, 2014, On the identities of the molluscan names described in A Short Zoology of Ta h i t i in the Society Islands by Anthony Curtiss in 1938 (Mollusca: Cephalopoda, Gastropoda), Zootaxa 3764 (3), pp. 394-400 : 396

Patella tahitica Curtiss, 1938 , a possible synonym of Cellana taitensis (Röding, 1798)

Original description (p. 189). “The Tahiti limpet, called by the Indians mapi, has no regular spire to its shell. The animal is like a snail or a slug, and is eaten fried. The shell is an inch long; it is shaped like a broad, low cone; but the tip is more to one side than the other; the outer side of the shell is brown, with rough streaks radiating from the tip. The inside is shining, streaked with clear white and purple. This creature is found on rocks beside the sea, clinging to them with great force. ( Patella tahitica . (Rocks under the cliff at Ahui, Tautira township, Tahiti.))”.

Identity. The identity of this “Tahiti limpet” remains somewhat uncertain as the description could be applied to more than one species found in the region. However, the general conchological characters (i.e. broad low cone, apex situated more to one side than the other, shell externally brown with rough streaks radiating from the tip, and internally shining, streaked with clear white and purple) and the size provided by Curtiss agree reasonably well with Cellana taitensis (Röding, 1798) , a species endemic to the Society Islands and Pitcairn Islands ( Cernohorsky 1972).