Scaphander cornus Siegwald & Malaquias, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Siegwald, Justine
name: Malaquias, Manuel António E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Cephalaspidea
Scaphandridae
Scaphander
Scaphander cornus

description: Scaphander cornus sp. nov.
(Figs 3, 30, 31; Table 2)
Scaphander mundus — Valdés 2008 (in part): 674–676, figs 40B, 42A, B.
Scaphander sp.1 — Siegwald et al. 2022.
ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: BA92D17E-7185- 487F-A1E1-88CDDCBF6BD5
Etymology: Latin, cornu; horn. Named after the shape of the posterior wing of the shell, which resembles a small horn.
Type material: Australia: Victoria, East Gippsland Commonwealth Marine Reserve, holotype, dissected and sequenced, AM C.590968, H = 23 mm; Bass Strait, one paratype, sequenced, AM C.563069, H = 34 mm.
Other material examined: Australia: Victoria, East Gippsland Commonwealth Marine Reserve, one spc., AM C.590962, H = 27 mm; New South Wales, Jervis Commonwealth Marine Reserve, one spc., dissected and sequenced, AM C.519368, H = 26 mm; Bass Strait, one spc., dissected and sequenced, AM C.590959, H = 30 mm. New Caledonia: Loyalty Basin, one sh., MNHN-IM-2010-2061, H = 27 mm.
Diagnosis: Shell ovoid, white. Spiral sculpture composed of sub-rectangular punctuations. Apex rounded. Posterior edge of outer lip rising above apex, in sharp curved wing. Rachidian teeth sub-rectangular. Prostate ovoid. Penial papilla absent. Penial chamber lined with soft warts around prostatic duct entrance.
Shell (Fig. 30): Maximum H observed = 34 mm. Shell ovoid, only one whorl visible. Aperture wide, as long as shell, narrowing posteriorly. Spire concealed. Posterior edge of outer lip rising in sharp curved wing protruding well beyond apex. Parietal wall covered with slight, smooth white callus. Spiral sculpture composed of punctuated striations. Punctations sub-rectangular, of variable shape and size. Thin, translucent periostracum. Shell white.
Radula (Fig. 31A–C): Radular formula 16 × 1.1.1 (H = 30 mm). Lateral teeth curved, with weak denticulation on inner edge. Rachidian teeth sub-rectangular, with rounded cusps.
Digestive tract (Fig. 31D, E): Salivary glands medium long; surface uneven. Paired gizzard plates kidney-shaped.
Male reproductive system (Fig. 31F, G): Penial chamber cylindrical, widening towards prostatic duct, lined with soft longitudinal ridges towards genital opening, bulged and lined with warts around prostatic duct entrance. Prostatic duct short. Muscular penial papilla absent. Prostate ovoid.
Ecology: Found between 2338 and 2760 m depth. Feeds on foraminifera (present study).
Distribution (Fig.3): Southeastern Australia and New Caledonia.
Remarks: Scaphander cornus is remarkably similar to its sister species S. nobilis, but has a slightly more rounded shell and lacks a penial papilla.It is also similar to S. mundus, another white-shelled species found in Eastern Australia and New Caledonia. This resemblance led, for example, Valdés (2008) to include specimens of this new species among the lots used in his redescription of S. mundus. However, S. mundus has a less rounded, more elongated shell, with a thinner, less curved wing at the posterior edge of the outer lip of the shell. The species S. cornus also seems to dwell in deeper bottoms (2338–2760 m) than S. mundus (900–1800 m).
description: Published as part of Siegwald, Justine & Malaquias, Manuel António E., 2025, Bringing light into deep-sea biodiversity: a systematic revision and molecular phylogeny of the genus Scaphander Montfort, 1810 (Gastropoda: Cephalaspidea), with a focus on the Indo-Pacific, pp. 1-60 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 203 on pages 45-47, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad201, http://zenodo.org/record/15006324