Varioconus franciscanus Tenorio & Abalde & Pardos-Blas & Cmim 2020, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Tenorio, Manuel J.
name: Abalde, Samuel
name: Pardos-Blas, José R.
name: Zardoya, Rafael
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Conidae
Varioconus
Varioconus franciscanus

description: Varioconus franciscanus (Hwass in Bruguière, 1792) comb. nov.
Fig. 10 H–J
Conus franciscanus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792: 698.
Conus hybridus Kiener, 1847: 256, pl. 83, fig. 1. syn. nov.
Conus hybridus – Monteiro et al. 2004: 52, pl. 39.
Material examined
Lectotype
“ AFRICA ” • 56.6 mm; MHNG-MOLL-52625 (Fig. 10H).
Other material
SENEGAL • 1 spec.; Gorée Island, Dakar; 14º39ʹ50ʺ N, 17º23ʹ58ʺ W; 3 Jul. 2015; MNCN exped.; GenBank mitochondrion, partial genome: KY801853; MNCN 15.05/79496 • 1 spec., 53.6 mm; same collection data as for preceding; MNCN 15.05/78491 (Fig. 10I) • 1 spec., 40.0 mm; Dakar, NGor; 14º45ʹ6ʺ N, 17º30ʹ3ʺ W; 1 Jul. 2015; MNCN exped.; GenBank mitochondrion, partial genome: KY801863; MNCN 15.05/78427 (Fig. 10J).
Geographical distribution
Dakar area, Senegal.
Conservation status in IUCN Red List
Endangered (evaluated as hybridus).
Remarks
The lectotype of the taxon Conus franciscanus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 designated by Kohn (1968) is at the MNHG. It measures 56.6 mm (stated 55 mm in Kohn 1968). It has been a controversial species, and several authors have synonymized this name either with Conus ventricosus Gmelin, 1791 (Kohn 1992) or Conus guinaicus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 (Röckel 1989; Lauer 1993b; Filmer 2011). The homonym name franciscanus (variety mediterraneus Hwass) Philippi, 1836 applicable to a color form of ventricosus further contributed to increase the confusion. The type locality (“Africa”) and the size and general appearance of the lectotype of franciscanus are more consistent with a guinaicus - like species than with the Mediterranean L. ventricosus. In this sense, we agree with the opinions of Röckel (1989) and Lauer (1993b), also followed by Filmer (2011) and Tucker & Tenorio (2013). Specimens matching the lectotype of V. franciscanus are relatively abundant around Gorée Island in Dakar. These uniform dark brown shells with a white central band had provisionally been assigned to the taxon V. guinaicus, despite being lighter and more elongated than the typical form of the latter species (Monteiro et al. 2004). We examined the mitogenome of one of such dark guinaicus -like specimens from Gorée Island. It showed almost no sequence divergence with a specimen of V. hybridus from NGor. This result was confirmed by sequencing of the universal cox1 gene fragment (Folmer et al. 1994) of additional guinaicus -like specimens from Gorée Island (Abalde et al. 2017b). Typical V. guinaicus from Popenguine are recovered as the sister clade. These results indicate that the guinaicus -like specimens from Gorée Island, representatives of the taxon V. franciscanus, are essentially identical to V. hybridus, and different from typical V. guinaicus. If we assume the conspecificity of the taxa franciscanus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 and hybridus Kiener, 1847, then the latter becomes a junior synonym to represent a form of franciscanus, which stands as the senior name for the species.
description: Published as part of Tenorio, Manuel J., Abalde, Samuel, Pardos-Blas, José R. & Zardoya, Rafael, 2020, Taxonomic revision of West African cone snails (Gastropoda: Conidae) based upon mitogenomic studies: implications for conservation, pp. 1-89 in European Journal of Taxonomy 663 (663) on pages 67-68, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.663, http://zenodo.org/record/3890442