Thaluta, a New Genus of Costellariidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda), with Description of a New Species

Abstract

The new genus Thaluta is proposed for a group of small costellariid gastropods from the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, with Thala maxmarrowi Cernohorsky, 1980 as the type species. A second species from central Japan that was previously misidentified as T. maxmarrowi is here described as Thaluta takenoko sp. nov. It differs from the type species in part by having a paucispiral rather than a multispiral protoconch. A series of specimens from Australia with an unknown protoconch may represent a third species of Thaluta. The geographic range of T. maxmarrowi is extended to South Africa. Comparison is made with the genera Thala H. & A. Adams, 1853, Mitromica Berry, 1958 and Zierliana Gray, 1847, with particular reference to Z. anthracina (Reeve, 1844)