Catalogue of Recent and fossil “worm-snail” taxa of the families Vermetidae, Siliquariidae, and Turritellidae (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda)

Abstract

The taxonomy of the uncoiling “worm-snails” belonging to the marine gastropod families Vermetidae, Siliquariidae and Turritellidae is notoriously confused and their nominal species frequently mixed (in the literature as well as in type specimen collections) with members of superficially similar tube-building polychaete worms or members of unrelated molluscan groups. A long history of introducing and using infrasubspecific names and the rampant employment of homonymous names for unrelated taxa had contributed to a system that became unworkable. The current catalogue researches nearly 1,500 names that have been cited in conjunction with Recent and fossil taxa worm-snail taxonomy (six names above family-group level, 18 family-group names, 195 genus-group names, 1,278 species-group names). Each name’s validity and availability (in the sense of the I.C.Z.N. Code) was investigated and current placement within or outside the mentioned worm-snail families is suggested. 560 species-group names are interpreted as available for members of the worm-snail groups here under discussion. Of these, approximately 280 species-group names are available for extant taxa. Various formal First-Reviser actions are taken to resolve priority issues. The type species for Tulaxoda Blainville, 1828 is herein designated to be Serpulorbis polyphragma Sasso, 1827, making Tulaxoda an objective junior synonym of Thylacodes Guettard, 1770. Magilus Montfort, 1810 is declared a nomen protectum over Campulotus Guettard, 1770, a nomen oblitum. Recurring nomenclatural issues and those too complex to treat within the regular catalogue entries are discussed in 22 taxa notes. The catalogue is fully referenced in 766 literature titles and eight associated literature notes.

Non-native molluscan colonizers on deliberately placed shipwrecks in the Florida Keys, with description of a new species of potentially invasive worm-snail (Gastropoda: Vermetidae)

“…belongs, has been known in the literature largely under the generic name Serpulorbis Sasso, 1827, which was shown to be a synonym of Thylacodes Guettard, 1770 by Bieler & Petit (2010). Five western Atlantic species were traditionally placed in Serpulorbis/Thylacodes (Rosenberg, 2009), two of which ( Serpulorbis birugosus Weisbord, 1962 and S. catella Weisbord, 1962) are now recognized to be based on polychaete worm tubes (Bieler & Petit, 2011). Two others, T. decussatus (Gmelin, 1791) and T. riisei (Mörch, 1862), differ from T. vandyensis n. sp.…”

“…Thylacodes adamsii (Mörch, 1859) appears to be this species. See Bieler & Petit (2011: 70).from China (Zou, Li & Kong, 2011) as Serpulorbis imbricata ; HQ834105) and 1 specimen of Thylacodes sp. from British Columbia, Canada (Layton, Martel & Hebert, 2014; KF643882).…”

A novel and enigmatic two-holed shell aperture in a new species of suspension-feeding worm-snail (Vermetidae)

“…None of the numerous existing nominal genus-group taxa of the family (Bieler & Petit, 2011) clearly encompass the morphological features of this new species. Species of Cupolaconcha, the only other vermetid group with known dome-shaped apertural shell modifications, differ in having large, calcareous, dome-shaped opercula.…”

“…However, selenizones do not occur in the other clades of gastropods and secondary shell openings are rare in caenogastropods. One such exception occurs in the slit-worm-snail family Siliquariidae, a cerithioidean caenogastropod group with sessile, mostly irregularly coiling shells that is not closely related to the vermetid wormsnails discussed herein (Bieler & Petit, 2011). Some siliquariids (e.g., genus Tenagodus) live mostly or completely embedded within sponges and have evolved a mutualistic relationship with the surrounding host sponge by sharing water flow through a shell slit or a series of perforations (Bieler, 2004).…”

Phylogeny and Systematics of Fossil and Recent Vermicularia (Caenogastropoda: Turritellidae)

“…6-9 6-9;Philippi, 1836;Pearse & Williams, 1951;Olsson & Harbison, 1953;Allmon, 1992aAllmon, , 1993. They are also of evolutionary interest as, compared with other uncoiled/openlycoiled gastropods, evolved relatively recently (Miocene) and remain the most similar to their regularly coiled turritellid relatives (Morton, 1953(Morton, , 1955Bieler & Petit, 2011). They might also be the only group of "worm-snails" in which regular coiling was lost and then re-evolved in a population (Gould, 1969;Gould & Robinson, 1994), and the uncoiled portion of the shell also appears to have been secondarily reduced in Vermicularia fargoi owensi Petuch & R. F. Myers, 2014 (Petuch & Myers, 2014).…”