Laevilitorina venusta Pfeffer, 1886

Zettler, Michael L. & Bick, Andreas, 2025, Molluscs from a shallow bay of King George Island (Antarctica, South Shetland Islands): An annotated checklist with new distributional records, Zootaxa 5631 (3), pp. 401-450 : 429-431

36. Laevilitorina venusta Pfeffer, 1886 [ Figs 14D–G ]

Laevilitorina venusta Pfeffer, 1886: 85 , pl. 1, figs 9a, b [in Martens & Pfeffer 1986]

Material examined. • 38 spms, Stn. 2; • 16 spms, Stn. 9.

Type locality. South Georgia.

Bathymetric distribution. 0–30 m.

Substrate. Hard bottom, grazing on macroalgae or stones.

Geographical distribution. ANTARCTICA: Antarctic Peninsula. SUBANTARCTICA: Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands, Marion Islands, Macquarie Islands. SCOTIA ARC: South Georgia, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands. SOUTH AMERICA: -.

Remarks. Engl (2012, p. 102) has made detailed comments on the unclear status of the species L. caliginosa (Gould, 1848) , a name which was very often used for records on the South Shetland Islands (and elsewhere). Due to the revision of the higher latitude periwinkle species Laevilitorina caliginosa sensu lato by Rosenfeld et al. (2024) we know, that the records at King George Island refer to L. venusta . During our study, we found L. venusta exclusively in the intertidal zone. The species is already known (as L. caliginosa ) from Maxwell and Admiralty Bays.

References. Arnaud et al. (1986), Rauschert (1991), Engl (2012), Aghmich et al. (2016), Aldea et al. (2016), Rosenfeld et al. (2022, 2024).

Figures

FIGURE 14. A–C: Laevilacunaria antarctica (E. von Martens, 1885); D–G: Laevilitorina venusta Pfeffer, 1886; H–K: Laevilitorina umbilicata Pfeffer, 1886; L–M: Pellilitorina pellita (E. von Martens, 1885). Unless otherwise indicated, the scale is always 1 mm.