Leporiconus suessi Hoernes & Auinger 1879
Creators: name: Harzhauser, Mathias
name: Landau, Bernard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Conidae
Leporiconus
Leporiconus suessi

description: Leporiconus suessi (Hoernes & Auinger, 1879)
Figs 17 L, 23D1–D2, 23E1–E2, 23F1–F3, 23G1–G2, 23H
[Chelyconus] [Conus] Suessi n. f.— Hoernes 1878a: 195 (nomen nudum).
C. [onus] Suessi — Hoernes 1878b: 207 (nomen nudum).
Conus (Chelyconus) Suessi nov. form.— Hoernes & Auinger 1879: 43, pl. 1, figs 1, 15, pl. 6, figs 1–2 [non pl. 6, figs 3–4 = Conus s.l. posticestriatus (Kojumdgieva in Kojumdgieva & Strachimirov, 1960)].
Conus (Chelyconus) suessi Hoernes et Auinger—Csepreghy-Meznerics 1956: 420, pl. 3, fig. 8.
Conus (Chelyconus) suessi Hoernes und Auinger 1879 —Kojumdgieva in Kojumdgieva & Strachimirov 1960: 212, pl. 49, fig. 8.
Conus (Chelyconus) suessi Hoernes & Auinger, 1879 — Strausz 1966: 459, pl. 69, fig. 6.
Varioconus pelagicus (Brocchi, 1814) — Kovács & Vicián 2013 (partim): 87, figs 131–137 [non Lautoconus pelagicus (Brocchi, 1814)].
non Conus (Chelyconus) suessi concavospira n. spp.— Csepreghy-Meznerics 1972: 33, pl. 17, fig. 21 (nomen nudum).
Type material. The syntype illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 1, fig. 1) was stored in the collections of the Geological Survey of Austria (GBA), but seems to be lost. Other syntypes: NHMW 1858 /0043/0001a, illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 6, fig. 1), syntype NHMW 1854/0035/0033, illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 6, fig. 2), syntype NHMW 1858/0043/0001b, illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 1, fig.15), 2 syntypes NHMW 1858/0043/0001a, 4 syntypes NHMW A457, 5 syntypes NHMW 1868 /0001/0386, all Lăpugiu de Sus (Romania); middle Miocene, Badenian (Langhian).
Studied material. Syntypes and 6 spec. NHMW 1865 /0001/0158, Lăpugiu de Sus (Romania).
Illustrated material. Figs 23 D1–D2: syntype, SL: 44.1 mm, MD: 19.8 mm, NHMW 1858 /0043/0001b, illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 1, fig. 15); Figs 23 E1–E2: syntype, SL: 64.6 mm, MD: 29.0 mm, NHMW A457; Figs 23 F1–F3: syntype, SL: 63.6 mm, MD: 29.4 mm, NHMW 1858 /0043/0001a, illustrated in Hoernes & Auinger (1879, pl. 6, fig. 1); Fig. 23 H: SL: 55.6, MD: 23.4 mm, NHMW 1865 /0001/0158; Figs 23 G1– G2: SL: 72.3, MD: 32.3 mm, NHMW 1865 /0001/0158; Fig. 17 L: syntype, SL: 51.2 mm, MD: 23.3 mm, NHMW A457a; all Lăpugiu de Sus (Romania).
Revised description. Moderately large, not very solid, biconical shells; straight-sided conical spire; early spire whorls tuberculate; later spire whorls flat, striate; suture moderately incised, undulating; last spire whorl forming flat to weakly concave sutural ramp passing via distinct, slightly angulated shoulder into elongate, feebly convex last whorl. Subsutural flexure shallow, moderately curved, moderately asymmetrical. Aperture narrow with straight outer lip, slightly widening towards short, straight, weakly recurved siphonal canal; fasciole indistinct, slightly swollen. Sculpture consisting of delicate, finely pustulose spiral threads on the entire whorl in subadult shells; beads are successively reduced during ontogeny; fully-grown specimens develop only weak spiral cords on base. Colour pattern under UV light consisting of densely spaced thin, continuous spiral lines and broad flammulae on spire whorls, becoming axially elongate opisthocline on shoulder. Last whorl with moderately broad discontinuous bands with axial streaks aligned with the axis of coiling.
Shell measurements and ratios. n = 7: largest specimen: SL: 68.9 mm, MD: 30.5 mm, mean SL: 56.8 mm (σ = 9.7), mean MD: 25.7 mm (σ = 4.1), spire angle: µ = 88.6° (σ = 6.0°), last whorl angle: µ = 31.3° (σ = 1.8°), LW: µ = 2.2 (σ = 0.07), RD: µ = 0.54 (σ = 0.01), PMD: µ = 0.89 (σ = 0.02), RSH: µ = 0.16 (σ = 0.02).
Discussion. We place this species in Leporiconus based on the pustulose spiral cords, the tuberculate early spire whorls and the striate spire whorls, which contradict a placement in Varioconus (= Lautoconus) as proposed by Kovács & Vicián (2013). A modern look-alike of Leporiconus suessi is the Indo-West Pacific Leporiconus corallinus (Kiener, 1847). This species was synonymized with Lautoconus pelagicus (Brocchi, 1814) by Kovács & Vicián (2013), but the Miocene to Pliocene L. pelagicus, as described by Hall (1966), Pinna & Spezia (1978), Muñiz Solís (1999) and Landau et al. (2013), differs in its larger size, the more convex spire whorls, the broader last whorl, which lacks the slight angulation and tends to be slightly ventricose, and its colour pattern of spirally arranged blotches (see Landau et al. 2013).
Conus suessi concavospira Csepreghy-Meznerics, 1972 is a nomen nudum. The subadult specimen illustrated by Csepreghy-Meznerics (1972) is probably unrelated with Leporiconus suessi but a clear identification is impossible.
Leporiconus suessi differs from Leporiconus transsylvanicus (Hoernes & Auinger, 1879) in the conical spire, the angulated shoulder and the conical last whorl; the beads of L. transsylvanicus are much coarser, present also in fully grown specimens and the colour pattern consists of wider spaced spirals of long dashes and speckles.
Paleoenvironment. The sandy sediment infill with elphidiid foraminifers suggests a nearshore environment.
Distribution in Paratethys. Badenian (middle Miocene): Eisenstadt-Sopron Basin: Forchtenau (Hoernes & Auinger 1879); Pannonian Basin: Borsodbóta, Diósd, Letkés, Szob, Budapest: Illés street, Örs vezér square (Hungary) (Kovács & Vicián 2013); Transylvanian Basin: Lăpugiu de Sus, Coşteiu de Sus (Romania) (Hoernes & Auinger 1879). The occurrence of this species in the Tortonian of Barcelona, mentioned by Faura I Sans (1908), needs confirmation.
description: Published as part of Harzhauser, Mathias & Landau, Bernard, 2016, A revision of the Neogene Conidae and Conorbidae (Gastropoda) of the Paratethys Sea, pp. 1-178 in Zootaxa 4210 (1) on pages 100-101, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4210.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/252966