Brachystomia eulimoides Hanley, 1844

Høisaeter, Tore, 2014, The Pyramidellidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) of Norway and adjacent waters. A taxonomic review, Fauna norvegica 34, pp. 7-78 : 26-27

Brachystomia eulimoides Hanley, 1844

Figure 29

Odostomia eulimoides - Hanley, 1844:18 Odostomia eulimoides Hanley - Forbes & Hanley 1850 -51;

Jeffreys 1859; Collin 1884; Petersen 1888; van Aartsen & al.

1984; van Aartsen 1987; Peñas et al. 1996; Høisaeter 2009 Odostomia (Brachystomia) eulimoides (Hanley) - Winckworth

1932; Høisaeter 1986 Zastoma eulimoides (Hanley) - Iredale 1915 Brachystomia eulimoides (Hanley) - Fretter et al. 1986; Graham

1988; Smith & Heppell 1991; Schander 1995 Turbo pallidus Montagu, 1803:325 Odostomia pallida (Montagu) - Alder 1848; Jeffreys 1867;

Friele 1874; G.O. Sars 1878; Norman 1879; Jeffreys 1884;

Marshall 1899; Friele & Grieg 1901 Chemnitzia pallida (Montagu) (in part) - Clark 1855

Ptychostomon pallidum (Montagu) - Kobelt 1903 Odontostomia (Auristomia) pallida (Montagu) - Dautzenberg

& Fischer 1925 Voluta ambigua Maton & Rackett, 1807:132 Odostomia ambigua (Maton & Rackett) - Dautzenberg &

Fischer 1912; Thiele 1928 Brachystomia ambigua (Maton & Rackett) - Ankel 1936 Odostomia crassa Thompson 1844:315 Turbonilla crassa (Thompson) - Lovén 1846a, b Turbonilla oscitans Lovén, 1847:49

Type material: Not known

Type locality: Guernsey, Channel Islands .

Material seen: Norway - Skagerrak , 5 spms, 7 shs ; Nord-Trøndelag, 4 shs; Nordland, 3 shs; England – Plymouth, 1 sh ( ZMBN 15739 ). Many of the shells are tentative identifications .

Description: Shell: Prosocline growth lines, a dominating body whorl, whorls less convex than in B. scalaris , aperture oblong. The largest of the Norwegian species of Brachystomia , reaching at least 5 mm in length. In many cases I found it hard to distinguish between B. eulimoides and B. angusta , as the growth lines are not always easily interpreted. Soft parts: Not known. Operculum: Not known.

Biology: This species is reported to live on (the ears of) Pecten maximum , Aequipecten opercularis , and sometimes Turritella ( Ankel 1959, Fretter et al. 1986); together with B. scalaris on Mytilus , and on Turritella in the Shetlands ( Marshall 1899b); on oysters and mussels in northern Wales ( Cole & Hancock 1955); on mussel beds on the south coast of Ireland ( McFadden & Myers 1989). Two specimens in my material were taken off the ears of Pecten maximus on the Skagerrak coast (coll. and leg. P. Buhl Mortensen). It has been reported as rather common on the ears of Chlamys islandicus around Bodø (G.O. Sars 1878).

Distribution: From Norway reported by G.O. Sars (1878) from outside Bodø (67°17’N) as rather common. G.O. Sars mentions that the only other reported Norwegian locality is Florø (61°36’N). Apparently never since reported from Norway. The many specimens reported in Høisaeter (1989) from Pomatoceros are due to a misidentification and in fact refer to Odostomia striolata . The two specimens taken off the ears of Pecten maximus from the Skagerrak coast most definitely belong to this species, while some of the empty shells assigned to this species might rather belong to B. angusta . Anyway I have shells from both Nord Trøndelag and Nordland that support the record of G.O. Sars from outside Bodø. Outside Norway it is known from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Swedish west coast ( Schander 1995), and Denmark, Shetland, the coasts of Ireland and further south along the Atlantic coasts of Europe ( Ankel 1936), and finally the western Mediterranean ( Peñas et al. 1996). Van Aartsen et al. (1998) extend the distribution to Mauritania and the Azores.

Remarks: The name of this species has been discussed by several authors. Thus Iredale (1915) concludes that the name used by Jeffreys (1867) and most Scandinavian authors following him, Odostomia pallida ( Montagu, 1803) is based on an indeterminable specimen and must be replaced by O. eulimoides Hanley, 1844 . O. eulimoides has been used by most authors since then, but as a reaction to the reintroduction of O. ambigua ( Maton & Rackett, 1807) by Nordsieck (1972), van Aartsen et al. (1984) and Smith & Heppel (1991) repeated and strengthened the arguments for O. eulimoides , which is now universally accepted as the name for this species.