Genus Pagodatrochus Herbert, 1989

Type species. Minolia variabilis H. Adams, 1873, OD (Herbert 1989: 365). Present-day, Persian Gulf, Red Sea (Fig. 7P).

Diagnosis. Small, trochiform shell with gradate spire, moderately convex base and strongly angular whorls with flat to concave periphery. Sculpture consisting of axial ribs forming a cancellate pattern with the spiral cords; shoulder angulation frequently with small nodes. Umbilicus open and deep.

Remarks. This genus is restricted now to the western embayments of the Indo West Pacific. The fossil record is rather spotty, and the earliest records are described from the Oligocene of Europe (Lozouet 1998, 2015). An early Miocene (Burdigalian) record, postdating the closure of the Tethyan seaway, was described by Harzhauser (2014) from southern India. This Miocene record suggests that the extant representatives are remnants of an originally wide Western Tethyan and NE Atlantic distribution. The systematic placement of Pagodatrochus is not fully resolved and molecular data are still missing. Herein, MolluscaBase (2020n) is followed, where the genus is placed in Cantharidinae .