Pustulatirus eppi Melvill 1891
Creators: name: Lyons And Martin Avery Snyder, William G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Fasciolariidae
Pustulatirus
Pustulatirus eppi

description: Pustulatirus eppi (Melvill, 1891)
(Figures 43–45)
Latirus eppi Melvill, 1891a: 158. Melvill, 1891b: 394, 411, pl. 2, fig. 11; Horst and Schepman, 1894: 92; Schepman, 1916: 477; van Bentham Jutting, 1927: 6, 32; Coomans, 1958: 49, 93; Warmke and Abbott, 1961: 14; de Jong and Kristensen, 1965: 39; Bullock, 1968: 69, 99, 101, pl. 4, fig. 10; Tello, 1975: 125; Princz, 1982: 123; Trew, 1987: 38; de Jong and Coomans, 1988: 88, pl. 25, fig. 479; Trew, 1990: 2; Lyons, 1991: 177, 178, fig. 42, 43; Díaz, 1995: 118; Snyder, 2003: 91; Mallard and Robin, 2005: 17 (pars); Rios, 2009: 253 (pars); Faber, 2010: 8, fig. 1; van der Bijl et al., 2010: 54, 4 figs. Non Latirus eppi Espinosa et al. (1994: 113; 1995: 36; both Cuba), Mallard and Robin (2005: pl. 43, right figs. only, ‘Porto Rico’), and Robin (2008: 221, figs. 2, = same figs. of shell from ‘Porto Rico’), all = P. v i rg i n e n s i s (Abbott, 1958); nec Latirus eppi auctt. = P. biocellatus Lyons and Snyder, herein.
Pustulatirus eppi (Melvill, 1891) —Vermeij and Snyder, 2006: 421 (pars; non fig.4C, = Pustulatirus biocellatus n. sp.).
Description: Shell small for genus (largest 24.1 x 10.8 mm), solid, broadly fusiform, axially compressed and compact, with rapidly expanding whorls, broad axial ribs, and low spiral cords. Protoconch too worn for description. Teleoconch with about 6 whorls, suture slightly undulant in accord with ribs and interspaces, sutural ramp lacking; whorls shorter than wide, with 8 or 9 axial ribs extending from suture to suture; spiral sculpture of low cords, 3 or 4 cords on whorls 2 and 3, 4 or 5 cords on whorl 4, cords on later whorls becoming nearly obsolete except for about 3 cords near adapical suture and 1 or 2 on body whorl near junction with siphonal process; about 5 stronger, oblique cords on dorsal surface of broad, abapically tapering siphonal process. Aperture ovo-elongate, constricted adapically by parietal node at posterior sinus and abapically by node opposite entrance fold at base of columella; outer lip lowly arcuate, with flexure near junction with siphonal process; outer lip smooth, worn on specimens examined, but with remnants between termini of cords suggesting extensions of interspaces; inside of outer lip with about 6 pustulose lirae emerging from aperture; inner lip smooth, adherent, with 3 or 4 oblique plicae on abapical half. Shell surface chestnut brown, apparently fading to yellow in older dead shells, interior white. Operculum and radula unknown.
Type Material: Holotype 24.1 x 10.8 mm (Figures 43–45), dd, RMNHL.
Type Locality: Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles.
Other Material: 1, 20.0 mm, dd, beach at Boca Santa Maria, Curaçao, ZMA.
Etymology: Named for Dr. Epp, its discoverer (Melvill, 1891a); Carolus T. Epp was a pharmacist with the Netherlands West Indian army on Curaçao from 1876 until 1886 (van der Bijl et al. 2010).
Distribution: The species is known only from Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, where it seems to be both endemic and rare.
Remarks: The authorship of Latirus eppi has been a subject of debate. The name was attributed solely to Melvill by van Benthem Jutting (1927), Coomans (1958), de Jong and Coomans (1965), Princz (1982), Trew (1987, 1990), Snyder (2003) and Mallard and Robin (2005). Others (Horst & Schepman 1894, Schepman 1916) attributed the name to Schepman and Melvill; and still others (Bullock 1968, de Jong & Coomans 1988, Lyons 1991, Díaz 1995, Rios 2009) attributed authorship to Melvill and Schepman, ‘Melvill y Schapman [sic]’ (Espinosa et al. 1994, 1995) or, most recently to Melvill and Schepman in Melvill 1891 (van der Bijl et al. 2010, Faber 2010).
Melvill (1891), in Notes from the Leyden Museum described but did not figure Latirus eppi, taking credit for the name which he stated that Schepman had asked him to describe. Melvill's note bears the date “March, 1891,” but that may be when he wrote it; the paper was published in August 1891 (Dickinson, 2005). In another description (with figure) published the same year in Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Melvill (1891: 394) stated that “Mr. Schepmann [sic] unites with me in joint authorship” of Latirus eppi. Melvill cited himself as sole author in the caption for the figure of the type (p. 411, pl. 2, fig. 11), while on the same page Peristernia retiaria Melvill (pl. 2, fig. 13) was attributed to Melvill and Schepmann [sic]. Nothing in the text associates Schepman with Peristernia retiaria, so we surmise that ‘Melvill and Schepmann’ was intended for Latirus eppi, and ‘Melvill’ was intended for Peristernia retiaria. As indicated on its title page, the manuscript for Melvill’s second paper was received on 24 March 1891, but Rosenberg (2009) cites its publication date as “post-July” of that year, so it too could have been published in August. Article 21.3.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Fourth Edition (ICZN, 1999) specifies that when the year and month but not the day of publication is known with certainty, the date to be adopted is the last day of the month, and Article 21.3.2 specifies that when neither the day nor the month of publication is known with certainty, the date to be adopted is the last day of the year. In the case at hand, the Code dictates that publication of Notes from the Leyden Museum be assigned a date of 31 August 1891 (i.e., 1891a), and Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society be assigned a date of 31 December 1891 (i.e., 1891b).
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Fourth Edition (ICZN 1999), Article 50.1 also states in part: “The author of a name … is the person who first publishes it ... in a way that satisfies the criteria of availability.” As Melvill is the only author identified in the first publication (1891a), Latirus eppi must be attributed solely to Melvill, and efforts to add Schepman’s name as an author are contrary to provisions of the Code.
Bullock (1968: 69, pl. 4, fig. 10) figured the holotype of Latirus eppi, which he treated tentatively as a “squat specimen, quite unlike the type specimen of [L.] attenuatus.” Bullock maintained that “a series of intergrades appear to exist between the two forms,” but he conceded that further study could result in their separation. Bullock may have been confused by the figure that Melvill (1891b) provided for L. eppi; the shell in that figure looks more like a specimen of P. virginensis than it does the holotype and other material of P. e p p i as figured by Bullock (1968), Lyons (1991), van der Bijl et al. (2010), Faber (2010) and herein. Those shells certainly are not conspecific with P. v i rg i n e n s i s. Melvill’s figure also may have influenced Mallard and Robin (2005) to misidentify a shell of P. virginensis from Puerto Rico as L. eppi. Shells of P. vi rgi ne n s is are larger, relatively more slender, seldom occur in a single color, and usually have more elevated ribs crossed by more prominent spiral cords than do shells of P. eppi. Dr. José Espinosa kindly provided a photograph of a specimen that had been reported as Latirus eppi from Cuban waters (Espinosa et al. 1994, Espinosa et al. 1995); that specimen proved to be P. virginensis of a small, dark form with white ribs that is rather common in the Bahama Islands; we illustrate a similar shell (ANSP 449719) in our Figures 27–28.
Pustulatirus eppi seems limited to waters around Curaçao. Most applications of its name (see synonymy) either have been reiterations of a few early records or misidentifications, including a new species described in the next account but also including a previously named species (see remarks for P. virginensis). Of the many Brazilian shells that we have seen offered for sale as Latirus eppi during the past decade, all have proved to be the new species.
description: Published as part of Lyons And Martin Avery Snyder, William G., 2013, The Genus Pustulatirus Vermeij and Snyder, 2006 (Gastropoda: Fasciolariidae: Peristerniinae) in the Western Atlantic, with Descriptions of Three New Species, pp. 35-58 in Zootaxa 3636 (1) on pages 46-48, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.283572