Genus Amalda H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853

Type species

Ancillaria tankervillii Swainson, 1825, by subsequent designation by Cossmann (1899).

Remarks

Amalda tankervillii occurs in Venezuela in shallow water (6 to 70 m) and is conchologically quite different from the other species included in the genus (Fig. 4M). Neither its anatomy nor the molecular data have been examined. Based on shell characters, Voskuil (1991) compared Ancillaria tankervillii with species of Eburna Lamarck, 1801 and concluded that Amalda s. str. should be considered a subgenus of Eburna, while the Indo-Pacific species of Amalda probably belong to a separate genus Baryspira P. Fischer, 1883 . Although A. tankervillii is indeed somewhat different from Indo-Pacific species in being thin, broadly oval, with a large inflated last whorl and a very low spire, in the absence of molecular and anatomical data the opinion of Voskuil (1991) remains speculative. Herein, we follow the generally accepted taxonomic concept of Amalda and do not attempt to revise its generic/subgeneric structure, which will require a much broader molecular taxon sampling than is currently available, as well, as sequencing additional genetic markers.