Abbottella (Abbottella) calliotropis Watters, 2013, new species
Creators: name: Watters, G. Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neotaenioglossa
Pomatiidae
Abbottella
Abbottella calliotropis

description: Abbottella (Abbottella) calliotropis new species
Figures 1 A–E, 5 O, 7 A
Type material. UF 456810, holotype; length, 6.3 mm; width, 7.5 mm. UF 216131, 59 paratypes, from the type locality.
Type locality. Dominican Republic, La Altagracia Province, along Rio Yuna, 2 km S of La Guana. ca. 18.79° N, - 68.67° W.
Other material examined. UF 216131, 17 juvenile, broken, or weathered specimens, all from the type locality; GTW 7085a, 1 specimen, 8 km E of Higüey, La Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic.
Distribution and habitat. Probably along the eastern edge of the easternmost outcrops of the cordillera in La Altagracia Province. Specimens were found under rocks in adjacent fields.
Description. Shell small (largest specimen, 7.0 mm total length x 8.3 mm total width; smallest specimen, 4.6 mm total length x 5.5 mm total width; holotype, 6.3 mm total length including peristome x 7.5 mm total width including peristome), depressed turbinate, whorls adnate except just before lip. Umbilicus wide, ca. 33% of total width, open to earliest whorls. Protoconch of ca. 1.25–1.5 smooth whorls but demarcation between protoconch and teleoconch not well-defined. Teleoconch of 3–3.25 whorls. Axial sculpture of 64–90 threads only indicated by their sculpture over the spiral cords. Irregular “empty” spaces interspersed may be growth stops. Spiral sculpture of 10– 17 low, weak cords; generally 5–9 above the periphery, one peripheral, 4–7 below periphery into umbilicus. Peripheral and umbilical cords strongest. Intersections of primary axial and spiral sculpture form minute pustules or denticles, most developed as serrate denticles on sutural, peripheral, and umbilical cords, as minute pustules elsewhere. Suture deeply channeled, bounded by serrate cords above and below. Aperture double, circular (3.5 mm maximum width in holotype), solute or barely adnate to final whorl. Inner lip smooth, moderately exserted. Outer lip expanded, composed of numerous lamellae, narrowest at the 11 o’clock position, slightly auriculate. Base color of shell white, tan, or dark brown patterned with diffuse, broken, brown spiral bands, often reduced to spots, bands apparent on both sides of outer lip; denticles and pustules white. Operculum multispiral with an calcareous lamella; lamella arises obliquely, then curves to vertical.
Variation in specimens. 78 specimens seen. Shells vary in degree of coloration and number of axial threads (64–90) and spiral cords (10–17).
Comparison with other species. Abbottella calliotropis is part of the group of small, turbinate species with fine, prickly or pustulose sculpture. They occur in the easternmost parts of the island. This species is most similar to A. crossei (Figure 3 S–W) but the sculpture is not as prickly; A. crossei has two keels on the body whorl whereas A. calliotropis has only one. Abbottella moreletiana wetmorei Bartsch, 1946, from Pelican Key off the Samaná Peninsula, has similar coloration but has 39 strong axial lamellar ribs on the final whorl in comparison with the 64– 90 nearly obsolete axial threads in A. calliotropis. Abbottella calliotropis differs from A. tentorium (Pfeiffer, 1850), A. urbana Watters, 2012, A. aenea Watters, 2010 (Figure 3 N–R), and A. milleacantha Watters & Duffy, 2010 (Figure 3 X–BB), in having fewer spiral cords, more pronounced denticles, and a peripheral keel of larger denticles.
Remarks. Some specimens have been damaged in the same manner—the shell is broken open on the first half of the final whorl (Figure 5 O). This suggests that all were killed by the same type of predator. This same breakage is seen in A. diadema, A. dichroa, and A. nitens. It is curious that this damage seems to be limited to the Samaná Peninsula and eastern La Altagracia Province.
Etymology. Gr. kallos, beauty + Gr. trope, a turning.
description: Published as part of Watters, G. Thomas, 2013, New taxa and distributional notes on Abbottella and related taxa (Gastropoda: Littorinoidea: Annulariidae), pp. 1-22 in Zootaxa 3646 (1) on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3646.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/283728