Conilithes brezinae
Creators: name: Psarras, Christos
name: Koskeridou, Efterpi
name: Merle, Didier
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Conidae
Conilithes
Conilithes brezinae

description: Conilithes brezinae (Hoernes & Auinger, 1879)   
(Figs 2, 3; Table 1)  
 Conus (Leptoconus) brezinae Hoernes & Auinger, 1879: 36.   
 Conus (Leptoconus) brezinae Hoernes, 1878: 195, nomen nudum.   
 Conus dujardini – Hörnes 1851: 40 (partim), pl. 5, figs 8a-f. — Symeonidis 1965: 290-291, pl. 63, figs 5-6. — Symeonidis & Konstantinidis 1968: pl. 81, figs 9-12. — Caze 2010: fig. 33D-E.   
 Conus (Conospirus) dujardini – Dermitzakis 1969: pl. 79, fig. 8.   
 Conilithes brezinae – Harzhauser & Landau 2016: 48-50, tables 1-2, figs 3F, 5D 1 -D 3, 5E 1 -E 3, 5F 1 -F 3, 5G 1 -G 3, 5H.   
TYPE MATERIAL. — Syntype NHMW 1999z0077/0023a, illustrated in Hörnes (1851: pl. 5, fig. 8a), syntype NHMW 1999z0077/0023b, illustrated in Hörnes (1851: pl. 5, fig. 8b), syntype NHMW 1999z0077/0023c, illustrated in Hörnes (1851: pl. 5, fig. 8c), syntype NHMW 1999z0077/0023d, illustrated in Hörnes (1851: pl. 5, fig. 8d), syntype NHMW 1999z0077/0023e, illustrated in Hörnes (1851: pl. 5, fig. 8e). TYPE LOCALITY. — Steinebrunn (Austria). Middle Miocene (late Langhian). STRATIGRAPHIC RANGE. — Langhian Paratethys (see Harzhauser & Landau 2016 for detailed references) and Tortonian of Greece (commonly found in all of the shallow marine Tortonian Formations of Crete).  
 MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Greece. Crete (precise localities unknown), 17 specimens: MNHN.F. A72565, MNHN.F. A72566, MNHN.F. A72571 to MNHN.F. A72584 and AMPG(IV) 2788; Filippi, 11 specimens: AMPG(IV) 2624-2629, 2631, 2633-2636; Partira, four specimens: (three specimens MNHN.F. A72568 to MNHN.F. A72570 and one specimen AMPG(IV) 2610); Tefeli, three specimens: AMPG(IV) 2630, 2632, 2637; Adhraktia, one specimen: MNHN.F. A72567; Psalidha, 13 specimens: AMPG(IV) 2611-2623. All of them display colour patterns under UV light.   
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOUR PATTERN  
Main colour pattern of this species consists of flammulae on spire whorls (Fig. 3), dots on carina (Fig. 3) and a nonfluorescent band below carina with small to tiny spiral rows of dots (Fig. 3). On the last whorl, this species bears spiral lines of dots usually interspersed with continuous spiral lines, on a non-fluorescent base colour. A non-fluorescent band on the anterior part of last whorl exists in most specimens (Fig. 2), surrounded by fluorescent bands (Fig. 3). The colour pattern variability of this species results from the ratio of the alternation between continuous spiral lines and other discontinuous lines making small dots (e.g., Fig. 2F, H), as well as the existence of one or two non-fluorescent bands at the last whorl (e.g., Fig. 2C, I, K). Minor pattern variations are the axial fluorescent bands and the existence of fluorescent bands, as a result of dots and lines coalescing.  
REMARKS  
 Symeonidis (1965), Symeonidis & Konstantinidis (1968), Dermitzakis (1969), Merle et al. (1988) and Koskeridou (1997) reported this species from Crete, under the name of Conus dujardini (Fig. 2Q). Harzhauser & Landau (2016) noted that the taxon Conilithes dujardini (Deshayes, 1845) had been used as a dumping ground for numerous Conilithes species. Harzhauser & Landau (2016) identified Conilithes brezinae and distinguished it from the Conilithes dujardini. The Cretan specimens are assigned to the species Conilithes brezinae, as they are morphologically identical. The specimens studied herein sometimes (one out of three specimens) possess 1-2 spiral grooves just under carina, but the grooves are not punctate, as in Conilithes exaltatus (Eichwald, 1830) (Harzhauser & Landau 2016). They possess a shallow subsutural flexure (Table 1), but since SSFD is a variable intraspecific character, we do not separate the material studied from the Paratethyan specimens (deep SSF, Harzhauser & Landau 2016). Harzhauser & Landau (2016) hypothesized the existence of this species in the Proto-Mediterranean (Harzhauser & Landau 2016) and with our material, we confirm their hypothesis. A specimen, first identified as Conilithes dujardini (Deshayes, 1845) from the Karaman Basin (Landau et al. 2013), has been identified by Harzhauser & Landau 2016 as Conilithes brezinae. Unlike Conilithes brezinae from Crete and Paratethys, the Karaman specimen possesses a colour pattern of irregular fluorescent blotches (Landau et al. 2013: 562, pl. 82, fig. 5). The horizontal non-fluorescent band, shared between the Karaman specimen and the Cretan specimens, is a pattern occurring in multiple extant and extinct Conus species (e.g., see herein Conilithes herodus n. sp. and Conilithes striatulus (Brocchi, 1814)). For these reasons, we prefer exclude that specimen from Conilithes brezinae until more specimens from Karaman are figured.
description: Published as part of Psarras, Christos, Koskeridou, Efterpi & Merle, Didier, 2021, Late Miocene Conidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Crete (Greece). Part 1: genera Conilithes Swainson, 1840 and Conus (Kalloconus) da Motta, 1991, pp. 1309-1339 in Geodiversitas 43 (24) on pages 1313-1315, DOI: 10.5252/geodiversitas2021v43a24, http://zenodo.org/record/5764710