Coralliophilidae from the Mediterranean Sea off the Coast of Israel

Transcription

1 MALAKOLÓGIAI TÁJÉKOZTATÓ 2001 MALACOLOGICAL NEWSLETTER 19: Coralliophilidae from the Mediterranean Sea off the Coast of Israel H. K. Mienis Abstract: A revision of the Coralliophilidae collected along the Mediterranean coast of Israel confirmed the presence of four species: Coralliophila brevis, Coralliophila meyendorffi, Coralliophila squamosa and Babelomurex carirriferus. The latter seems the most common one. Key words: Mollusca, Gastropoda, Coralliophilidae, distribution, Mediterranean Sea, Israel. The Coralliophilidae or Coral snails constitutes a gastropod family, which is very popular among shell collectors. Especially the numerous species living in the tropics excell in form and sculpture. A most up-todate review of the family was published by Kosuge, S. Suzuki, M. (1985), however, recently numerous additional species have been described from the Western Pacific. Eleven species have been reported so far from the Mediterranean Sea (Sabelli, B. et al., 1990), but it is rather doubtful whether Coralliobia (Quoyola) madreporarum (Sowerby, 1822), an Indo-Pacific species, has indeed settled permanently in the Mediterranean Sea. The scientific name of the latter is a fine example of the taxonomic difficulties encountered in this family. While Sabelli, B. et all., 1990 listed it as a Coralliobia, Kosuge, S. Suzuki, M. (1985) and Bosch, D. T. et al. (1995) placed it in Coralliophila. These differences of opinion are due to the fact that classification of the Coral snails is based on shell characters only. All the species in the family are parasites and lack a radula: one of the most important taxonomic characters within the Muricacea. The Coralliophilidae occurring off the Mediterranean coast of Israel have been enumerated by Barash, A. Danin, Z. (1992). They mentioned four species, however, the names of two species are not correct and have to be changed. The opportunity was taken to have a second look at the material present in the National Mollusc Collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) and the Tel Aviv University (TAU). It confirmed the presence of four species in that part of the Mediterranean Sea, although voucher specimens of one species could not be located. Coralliophila brevis (Blainville, 1832) Shiqmona, on the beach, leg I. Yaron, 6 August 1971 (TAU/1). Additional specimens are most probably in the collection of F. Nordsieck in the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt am Main, since he reported this species also from Shiqmona (Nordsieck: 1974: 60). 89

2 Coralliophila meyendorffü (Calcara, 1845) Acco, leg. Ch. Leurer, 1965 (HUJ 7138/1); Qishon, leg. N. Katz, 5 February 1965 (TAU/1); Atlit, 1965 (HUJ 2606/1); Atlit, leg. H.K. Mienis, 1971 (HUJ 2752/1); Bat Yam, leg. H.K. Mienis, 18 December 1996 (HUJ 7147/2); Palmahim, leg. H.K. Mienis, 29 July 1972 (HUJ 10087/1). Barash & Danin (1992: 127) mentioned still specimens from Rosh HaNiqra, Naharüya, Shiqmona and Nizzanim, but that material could not be located in any of the collections. Coralliophila squamosa (Bivona, 1838) (= Coralliophila alucoides: Barash & Danin, 1992: 128) Shave Ziyyon and Atlit: both are mentioned by Barash & Danin (1992: 128), but the specimens are neither in TAU nor in HUJ. Sínce the present author had identified both samples some 20 years ago, they are recorded here. Babelomurex cariniferus (Sowerby, 1834) (= Coralliophila babelis: Barash & Danin,l992: 127) Haifa Bay, 10 fath., SFRS 84, 28 February 1954 (TAU/1-specimen not in vial); Atlit, dredged from a depth of 54 m, ± 1947 (HUJ 889/1); off Atlit, dredge 28, 28 April 1968 (TAU/1); Atlit, leg. G. Haas, J. Heller & H.K. Mienis, May 1971 (HUJ 30995/1 ); Atlit, leg. H.K. Mienis, 1971 (HUJ 2753/1 ); Atlit-Dor, fath., SFRS 1179, 12 Nov (TAU/1 ); Tantura, 1950 (HUJ 20036/1 ); Netaniya, dredged from a depth of 36 m, 15 February 1950 (HUJ 890/1); Tel Aviv, near the harbour, leg. N. Glass, 21 Febr (TAU/1); Palmahim, beach, leg. D. Ben-Ami, 12 Dec (TAU/1); Palmahim, leg. H.K.Mienis, 7 September 1983 (HUJ 608/1); Nizzanim, 35 m., leg. Ch. Lewinsohn, 29 June 1977 (TAU/ 1 ); Ashqelon, 17 fath., SFRS 1 144, 18 Aug (TAU/1). Barash & Danin (1992: 127) mentioned still material from the following localities: Nahariyya, Akko, Bat Gallim, Shiqmona, Caesarea and Netanya, but voucher specimens are neither in TAU nor in HUJ. The most common species turned out to be Babelomurex cariniferus, but this might be due to collecting bias. It is the most attractive one among those species of Coralliophilidae recorded from the Mediterranean beach of Israel. References Barash, A. Danin, Z. (1992): Fauna Palaestina Mollusca I. Annotated list of Mediterranean molluscs of Israel and Sinai. 405 pp, 372 figs. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem. Bosch, D.T. Dance, S.P. Moolenbeek, R.G. Oliver, P.G. (1995): Seashells of Eastern Arabia. 296 pp. Motivate Publishing, Dubai, Abu Dhabi & London. Kosuge, S. Suzuki, M. (1985): Illustrated catalogue of Latiaxis and its related groups Family Coralliophilidae. Institute of Malacology of Tokyo, Spec. Public., 1: 83 pp, 50 plts. 90

3 Nordsieck, F. (1974): Marine shells from the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Argamon, Israel J. Malacology, 4 (2 4): Sabelli, B. Giannuzzi-Savelli, R. Bedulli, D. (1990): Catalogo annotato dei molluschi marini del Mediterraneo Annotated check-list of Mediterranean marine mollusks, 1: XIV pp. Libreria Naturalistica Bolognese, Bologna. MIENIS, Henk K. National Mollusc Collection, Berman Building Dept. Evolution, Systematics & Ecology Hebrew University, IL Jerusalem, Israel National Mollusc Collection, Dept. Zoology The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Tel Aviv University, IL Tel Aviv, Israel mienis@netzer.org.il & mienis@hotlmail.com 91

4

5 MALAKOLÓGIAI TÁJÉKOZTATÓ 2001 MALACOLOGICAL NEWSLETTER 19: Blister Pearls in Arca navicularis from the Red Sea H. K. Mienis Abstract: Blister pearl formation is reported for the first time from Arca navicularis, an common Indo- Pacific Ark shell rarely reported from the Red Sea. The blister pearls were triggered by boring organisms within the layers of the outer shell. Key words: Mollusca, Bivalvia, Arcidae, Arca navicularis, Pearl formation. In his excellent monograph of the bivalves living in the Red Sea, Oliver, P. G. (1992) included also Arca navicularis Bruguière, 1789 (Fam. Arcidae), yet it does not seem to be very common in the Eritrean faunal province. To my surprise the late Prof. Chanan Lewinsohn of the Tel Aviv University dredged thousands of empty valves belonging to Arca navicularis from m depth off Elat, in the northern part of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, on 5 September A check of that material revealed the presence of three interesting cases of blister pearl formation. The largest valve, a left one, has a length of 36.8 mm and shows two blister pearls. A light brown pearl is covering half of the posterior adductor scar and a tubular whitish pearl is situated halfway the posterior aductor scar and the centre of the ventral margin. A small round hole is located at the exterior of the shell more or less above both pearl formations. An other left valve with a length of 33.5 mm shows nine irregular pearl formations in the centre of the interior. Seven have still the form of partly covered open tubes and are connected to a tunnel of a boring organism within the layers of the outer shell. The smallest specimen, again a left valve, shows a whitish pearl formation below the posterior adductor scar. It covers in part a tube of a boring organism which penetrated the shell from the outside. The blister pearl formations reported here were all triggered by boring organisms which tried to penetrate and tunnel the shell from the outside. They constitute the first reports on blister pearl formation in Arca navicularis. However, blister pearl formation seems to be a rather common feature in the family Arcidae since most recently I was able to report it from Arca noae Linnaeus, 1758, Anadara uropigimelana (Bory St. Vincent, 1824), Barbatia barbata (Linnaeus, 1758), Barbatia decussata (Sowerby, 1833) and Scapharca natalensis (Krauss, 1848) (Mienis, H. K. 1995, 2000, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). References Mienis, H.K. (1995): A blister pearl in a fossil Anadara uropigimelana (Bory St. Vincent) (Mollusca, Bivalvia, Arcidae). De Kreukel, 31 (6-7):

6 Mienis, H.K. (2000): Wratparels in Barbatia barbata uit Israël. C.B. Ned. Malac. Ver., 314: 67. Mienis, H.K. (2000a): A blister pearl in Scapharca natalensis. Triton, 2. (in print) Mienis, H.K. (2000b): A blister pearl in Arca noae Linnaeus, Of Sea and Shore. (in print) Mienis, H.K. (2000c): Blister pearls in Barbatia decussata. Pallidula. (in print) Oliver, P.G. (1992): Bivalved seashells of the Red Sea. 330 pp., 46 plts. Verlag Christa Hemmen, Wiesbaden & National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. MIENIS, Henk. K. National Mollusc Collection, Dept. Zoology The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Tel Aviv University, IL Tel Aviv, Israel mienis@netzer.org.il & mienis@hotmail.com 94