Cuspidaria infelix Thiele, 1912

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 : 423

27. Cuspidaria infelix Thiele, 1912 [ Figs 11G–I ]

Cuspidaria infelix Thiele, 1912: 233 , pl. 18, fig. 28

Material examined. • 2 spms, Stn. 3.

Type locality. Gauss Station (Davis Sea) at a depth of 385 m.

Bathymetric distribution. 60–1400 m.

Substrate. Soft bottom.

Geographical distribution. ANTARCTICA: Circum-Antarctic. SUBANTARCTICA: -. SCOTIA ARC: South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands. SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina (?).

Remarks. The differentiation between C. infirma Pacheco, Teso & Pastorino, 2022 and C. infelix is, in our opinion, very difficult. Our material shows a prodissoconch length of 190 µm compared to about 200 µm in C. infirma . The dissoconch is covered with tiny microscopic pits; while the prodissoconch is smooth but has pits in C. infirma . The rostrum is relatively long and the rostral depression is visible. We tend to favour C. infelix rather than C. infirma . We found it in a depth of 100 m. The species is already known from Maxwell and Admiralty Bays. The record from the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon off Argentina by Pacheco et al. (2022) is far away from all other localities and would have to be genetically verified.

References. Egorova (1982), Arnaud et al. (1986), Hain (1990), Rauschert (1991), Absher & Feijó (1998), Aldea & Troncoso (2008, 2010a), Engl (2012), Pacheco et al. (2022), Steger et al. (2023).

Figures

FIGURE 11. A–B: Thracia meridionalis E. A. Smith, 1885; C–D: Laternula elliptica (P. P. King, 1832); E–F: Cuspidaria minima (Egorova, 1993); G–I: Cuspidaria infelix Thiele, 1912. Unless otherwise indicated, the scale is always 1 mm.