Episiphon sowerbyi (Guilding, 1834)

Figs. 58–59

+ Dentalium sowerbyi Guilding 1834: 35, pl. 3, fig. 7.

+ Dentalium (Episiphon) sowerbyi: Henderson 1920: 77; Maury 1922: 38; Turner 1955: 314; Abbott 1974: 387.

+ Dentalium (Episiphon) sowerbyi sowerbyi: Henderson 1920: 79, pl. 13, figs. 2, 3, 10.

+ Dentalium (Episiphon) sowerbyi pelliceri Henderson 1920: 80, pl. 13, figs. 7–9.

+ Episiphon sowerbyi: Scarabino 1985: 200, pl. 73, fig. 1025; 1994: 308, pl. 107, fig. 1513; Redfern 2001: 191, pl. 76, fig. 783; Steiner and Kabat 2001: 444; 2004: 645.

Type material

not located.

Type locality

"in arenosis Oceani Caribaei" (by original designation).

Diagnosis

shell small (to 10 mm), slender, fine, slightly curved, translucent yellow. Close rings at apical portion fade through center of shell. Apical callous conspicuous, usually with short pipe. Oral, apical sections sligthly laterally compressed, lumen wide.

Material examined

IBUFRJ 10967, sta 1f, 1 dd; IBUFRJ 14250, sta C13, 2 dd; IBUFRJ 14251, sta 504, 3 dd; IBUFRJ 14311, sta 52, 1 dd.

Distribution

USA: North Carolina, Florida (Henderson 1920; Turner 1955); gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea: Cuba; Barbados (Henderson 1920; Lewis 1965); Brazil: off Amapá and Canyon of Amazon river (Scarabino 1985, 1994), Bahia and Rio de Janeiro (this study). Living 13 m to 150–200 m (Lewis 1965), shells down to 830 m (present paper).

Remarks

Episiphon sowerbyi differs from Ep. didymum by the presence of transversal rings in shell surface. This ringed sculpture fades at the middle of the shell in our specimens, but entire sculptured specimens were mentioned by Henderson (1920: pl. 13, fig. 10). Figure 59 shown detail of the ring sculpture under SEM magnification, and we could observe a papillated pattern of sculpture in these rings.