Eulimella frielei, Høisaeter, 2014

Høisaeter, Tore, 2014, The Pyramidellidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) of Norway and adjacent waters. A taxonomic review, Fauna norvegica 34, pp. 7-78 : 61

Eulimella frielei n.sp.

Figure 103-105

Odostomia acicula (Philippi, 1836) - Friele, 1876:6

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:726A8344-7889-493A-A882-2CC7D068E623

Type material: Holotype ZMBN 1044 .

Type locality: Korsfjorden , western Norway, 360 m.

Etymology: Named after the well known malacologist, Herman Friele, who originally identified the shell, here designated as the holotype under the name Odostomia acicula ( Friele 1876) .

Material seen: Norway - Hordaland, 1 sh ( ZMBN 1044 , Holotype) ; Nordland, 2 shs ( T 71064 & ZMBN 21657 ) .

Diagnosis: Shell: Eulimella with extremely long and narrow shell. Apical angle c. 11°. Total shell length of holotype 11 mm. Seventeen whorls in holotype. Shell delicate, thin, transparent, with distinctly sinuous, opisthocline growth lines (Figure 104). Shell otherwise smooth and glossy, no sculpture except very indistinct, fine spiral incisions. First c. six whorls convex, evenly rounded. Next several whorls almost flat. Later whorls gradually more and more pear-shaped, with widest diameter at lower end. Body whorl with evenly rounded periphery, no angulation as in e.g. E. scillae . Aperture trapezoid, columellar lip straight. Columellar fold absent. No umbilicus. Protoconch (Figure 103, right) planorboid, but with distinct bulging top whorl, slightly inclined, intermediate between, E. ventricosa and E. laevis (Figure 105). Soft parts: Not known. Operculum: Not known.

Biology: Not known.

Distribution: (See Remarks below).

Remarks: A specimen in the Zoological Museum, University of Bergen (ZMBN 1044), from Korsfjorden, (60°10’N) 360 m, identified as Odostomia acicula Ph. by Friele ( Friele 1876:6), is unique in the Norwegian fauna for its size. Seventeen whorls and a length of 11 mm is far more than for any other species of Eulimella . Friele ascribed it to the variety turris of Forbes. “Shell of nearly equal breadth throughout, with rather convex whorls” Jeffreys 1867:171. Whether the shell from Korsfjorden is conspecific with the variety turris from the Aegean Sea is doubtful. Van Aartsen (1994:97) mentions this variety briefly “The species Parthenia turris Forbes, 1844 cannot be recognized with any certainty and is therefore considered a nomen dubium ”. It is tricky to base the description of a new species on so little material, but the extreme length, the sinuous opisthocline growth lines, the distinctive protoconch and the characteristic shape of the individual whorls, clearly keep it apart from any other species described from European waters.