Eulimella scillae (Scacchi, 1835)

Høisaeter, Tore, 2014, The Pyramidellidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) of Norway and adjacent waters. A taxonomic review, Fauna norvegica 34, pp. 7-78 : 59-60

Eulimella scillae (Scacchi, 1835)

Figures 99 -100

Melania Scillae Scacchi, 1835:15

Turbonilla Scillae (Scacchi) - Lovén 1846a, b

Eulimella Scillae (Scacchi) - Forbes & Hanley 1850 -51; McAndrew & Barrett 1856; G.O. Sars 1878; Norman 1879; Petersen 1888

Eulimella scillae (Scacchi) - Grieg 1888; Norman 1892; Appellöf 1897; Grieg 1897, 1898; Friele & Grieg 1901; Kobelt 1903; Nordgaard 1913; Grieg 1913, 1914; Ankel 1936; Nordsieck 1972; McKay & Smith 1979; Fretter et al. 1986; Høisaeter 1986; Graham 1988; Smith & Heppell 1991; Warén 1991;

van Aartsen 1994; Schander 1995; Peñas et al. 1996; Høisaeter 2009; Öztürk & Bakir 2013

Chemnitzia Scillae (Scacchi) - Clark 1855

Odostomia Scillae (Scacchi) - Jeffreys 1848, 1867, 1870; Friele 1874; Jeffreys 1884; Marshall 1900

Odostomia (Eulimella) Scillae (Scacchi) - Monterosato 1875

Eulima MacAndrei Forbes, 1844: 412

Eulimella macandrei (Forbes) - Winckworth 1932

Eulimella macandrewi (Forbes) - Iredale 1915

Chemnitzia macandrei (Forbes) - Alder 1848

Eulimella crassula (Forbes, 1843) - Jeffreys 1846b

Type material: Not known.

Type locality: Upper Pliocene , around Gravina da Puglia, Italy .

Material seen: Norway - Skagerrak , 2 spms ; Hordaland, 15 spms, 1 sh; Sogn og Fjordane 9 shs ( ZMBN 1037 , 20394 , 21658 ) ; Møre og Romsdal 4 shs; Nord-Trøndelag, 1 spm, 21 shs; Nordland, 7 spms, at least 4 shs; Barents Sea, off Troms, 6 shs ( ZMBN 21659 ) .

Diagnosis: Shell: Eulimella with fairly elongate, slightly cyrtoconoid shell. Total shell length not exceeding 12 mm. Number of whorls 12 or less. Shell with no visible sculpture, solid, nearly opaque, with a bluish-white hue, smooth but with fine, nearly straight growth lines and some extremely fine striations seen only at high magnification. Whorls almost flat. Body whorl distinctly angulated below, most pronounced in young specimens. Aperture trapezoid. Columellar fold detectable as a slight thickening on the inner lip. Protoconch large for the genus, helicoid, only slightly inclined. Soft parts: Tentacles triangular, tapering to narrow points, mentum slightly bifid, eyes fairly far apart. Pigmented mantle organ long and narrow, yellow with orange blotches (Figure 100). Operculum: Thin and translucent, with a narrow internal, spiral ridge, and without notch for columallar tooth.

Biology: Not known, but this characteristic species is found mainly in intermediate depths, from roughly 20 to 150 m. The substrate is often a mixture of silt and shell gravel. However, it has also been reported from greater depths, with clayey bottom sediments. Many of the specimens are from hauls taken up steep rocky slopes with silty ledges.

Distribution: In Norway it is reported from Oslofjorden ( Jeffreys 1870) at least N to 68ºN (G.O. Sars 1878). Friele & Grieg (1901) report it from the shelf (Tromsøflaket) at 71ºN. It is reported in almost every faunistic investigation from the western coast of Norway. In my material 13 specimens and an additional 55 shells. Three samples with two specimens and one shell in the material from Skagerrak, and six specimens from four samples in the material from Nordland. Nine samples with 11 specimens from the Bergen area, most of them collected by A. Warén. From the five cruises, at least 24 shells, but only two specimens, one from Bindalsfjorden (c. 65°10’N) and one from Foldafjorden (c. 64°40’N). The species seems to be fairly evenly distributed along the coast. Outside Norway, Petersen (1888) reports it from three places in the eastern Kattegatt, McKay & Smith (1979) report it sparingly (only old records) from the North Sea coast of Scotland. It is also recorded from more southern parts of the British North Sea coast ( Alder 1848, Jeffreys 1867, and Ankel 1936). Fretter et al. (1986) state that it is known from the Mediterranean, Madeira, the Canaries north to Arctic Norway. In the British Isles from the northern and western coasts, but not from the Channel or southern North Sea. Recorded by Peñas et al. (1996) from the western Mediterranean, Öztürk & Bakir (2013) from the Turkish coast, and by van Aartsen et al. (2000) from Mauritania.

Remarks: E. scillae is based on an upper Pliocene fossil from southern Italy. The Recent shell was described as Eulima macandrei Forbes, 1844 . The first to use the name of the fossil for the Recent material was apparently Jeffreys (1848), and his opinion has been accepted by almost every author since. According to Warén (1991) the deposits in which the original E. scillae was found, contained also a number of shells identical or very similar to Recent shells from intermediate depths in the Mediterranean and further north. This species is fairly common, and since it is one of the more conspicuous of the Norwegian species, it is perhaps the one species most frequently reported from Norwegian localities.

Figures

Figure 99. Eulimella scillae. Specimen from between Songvår and Hellesøy, Søgne (Vest-Agder), 58°01’N, 07°49’E, 75-70 m, 4.2 mm (S 47-88). Figure 100. Eulimella scillae. Three orientations of protoconch, head-foot complex, and pigmented mantle organ. Figure 101. Eulimella ventricosa. At left a specimen from Skagerrak SE of Store Torungen, (Aust-Agder) 58°22’N, 08°50.2’E, 79 m, 5.0 mm (S 4-86), and at right two specimens from Kobbeleia, Raunefjorden, 60°17.7’N, 05°08.7’E, 70-90 m, 4.75 mm and 1.3 mm (2007-1). Figure 102. Eulimella ventricosa. Three orientations of protoconch, pigmented mantle organ, and head-foot complex of crawling snail. Figure 103. Eulimella frielei n. sp. Holotype (ZMBN 1044). Figure 104. Eulimella frielei n.sp. Holotype. Detail of shell showing growth lines. Figure 105. Top whorls of four specimens of Eulimella, from left: E. laevis, E. frielei n.sp. and two specimens of E. ventricosa.