Pupa nivea
Creators: name: Valdés, Ángel
name: Feliciano, Kendall
name: Malaquias, Manuel A. E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Cephalaspidea
Acteonidae
Pupa
Pupa nivea

description: Pupa nivea (Angas, 1871)
(Figs. 15A–G)
Buccinulus niveus Angas, 1871: 19, pl. 1, fig. 27. Type locality: Near Sow and Pigs Reef, Port Jackson, Australia.
Buccinulus kirki Hutton, 1873: 51. Type locality: Omaha, New Zealand.
Buccinulus albus Hutton, 1873: 51. Type locality: undermined [New Zealand].
Buccinulus intermedius Angas, 1879: 862, pl. 54, fig. 11. Type locality: Aldinga Bay, South Australia.
Buccinulus gracilis Kirk, 1882: 268. Type locality: Wellington, New Zealand.
Type material. Buccinulus niveus — 2 syntypes, dry shells, 11.5–12.3 mm long (NHMUK 1871.7.5.24), photos examined, one of them illustrated by Beu (2004: fig. 24D); Buccinulus kirki — Holotype, dry shell, 22 mm long (NMNZ M.001814), photo examined; Buccinulus albus —type material originally at NMNZ, currently missing (Marshall, 1996; Beu, 2004); Buccinulus intermedius —3 possible syntypes, dry shells, 7.5–9.7 mm long (NHMUK 1879.1.31.4), photos examined; Buccinulus gracilis — Holotype, dry shell, 25 mm long (NMNZ M.000050).
External morphology. Live animal unknown. Shell solid, very narrow, elongate, widest at 1/3 from anterior end, with convex to parallel sides, rounded to elongate anterior end (Figs. 15A–G). Body whorl large, about 2/3–3/4 of total length. Spire conical, elongate, with 4–5 whorls. Suture slightly channeled. Aperture narrow, elongate, wider anteriorly, narrowing abruptly towards posterior end, ending at 1/4–1/6 of the posterior end of first whorl. Columellar margin thickened, slightly oblique, with large, channeled anterior fold starting at anterior end of aperture; small, simple posterior fold located close to aperture mid-length, separated from anterior fold by short gap. Protoconch not observed. Sculpture composed of numerous punctuated spiral grooves. Punctuations conspicuous, irregular, oval, situated next to each other, often fused together, within each groove. Grooves separated by gaps wider than grooves. Shell color uniformly white, with faint irregular orange pigment in some specimens.
Geographic range. Possibly endemic to New Zealand and southern Australia (present paper).
Remarks. The taxonomic history of the various names introduced for some New Zealand and southern Australian species is complex and following Beu (2004) nearly all of them are currently considered synonyms of Pupa affinis (A. Adams, 1855). Several nominal species were described by Angas (1871, 1879), Hutton (1873), and Kirk (1882), including Buccinulus niveus Angas, 1871, Buccinulus intermedius Angas, 1879, Buccinulus albus Hutton, 1873, Buccinulus kirki Hutton, 1873, Buccinulus gracilis Kirk, 1882, and Buccinulus huttoni Kirk, 1882. Suter (1913) abandoned the use of the genus name Buccinulus in favor of Pupa and regarded P. kirki and P. huttoni as synonyms of P. affinis (see remarks on P. solidula) but considered P. alba and P. gracilis as a valid, distinct species of Pupa. On the contrary, Finlay (1926) rejected the use of P. affinis for New Zealand specimens, regarded P. alba as valid name, and designated a neotype for this species. Moreover, Finlay (1926) determined that P. kirki is also valid and a senior synonym of P. gracilis, but that P. huttoni was possibly different (see remarks on P. solidula). Rudman (1971) indicated that the specimens identified by Suter (1913) as P. affinis are in fact P. kirki, which according to him is a distinct and valid species, highly variable in color. Rudman (1971) also commented that the description of P. alba by Hutton (1873) was totally inadequate and that would fit several species. Moreover, Rudman (1971) regarded Finlay’s (1926) designation of a neotype for P. alba invalid and suggested this species name should be rendered as a nomen nudum. Beu (2004) expanded the synonymy of P. affinis to include the New Zealand species P. nivea and P. intermedia, but also species names originally described from other Indo-Pacific locations such as Buccinulus strigosus Gould, 1859, Tornatella fumata Reeve, 1865, Buccinulus fraterculus Dunker, 1882, Pupa thaanumi Pilsbry, 1917, Pupa tragulata Iredale, 1936, and Pupa strigosa sekii Habe, 1958. Beu (2004) also disagreed with Sutter (1913) and moved P. alba and P. gracilis back to the synonymy of P. affinis. Burn (2006) agreed with Beu (2004) considering P. nivea as a synonym of P. affinis but because of slight differences in the radula supported the retention of P. tragulata as a distinct deeper-water species found in New Zealand and New South Wales, Australia. Further research on this species complex, including molecular techniques, is necessary to clarify the taxonomic status and validity of these available names but this is beyond the scope of the present paper.
description: Published as part of Valdés, Ángel, Feliciano, Kendall & Malaquias, Manuel A. E., 2023, The genus Pupa Röding, 1798 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Acteonidae) in New Caledonia with notes on Recent species, pp. 471-506 in Zootaxa 5270 (3) on pages 494-495, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5270.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/7860353