Muricidae

The alive and fossil species of the genus Lindapterys
Petuch, 1987 are presented. Three are the current species,
two Indo-Pacific and one Atlantic: L. murex (Hedley,
1922), distributed in Australia, L. soderiae Callea,
Volpi, Borri, Martignoni, 2001, from Somalia and L.
sanderi Petuch, 1987 living in Brazil and Barbados waters.
Two additional specimens, similar to L. murex,
from New Caledonia, may belong to a new species.
Three are the fossil species: L. vokesae Petuch, 1987, the
type species, found in the Lower Miocene formation
of Chipola, Florida, L. alatum (Millet, 1854) from the
Upper Miocene basin of the Loire, France and L. poppelacki
(Hörnes, 1853), described for the Middle Miocene
of Vienna Basin, Austria.

The northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean small mussel drills of the Ocinebrina aciculata complex are here revised and consist of at least 3 species. The type species, Ocinebrina aciculata (Lamarck, 1822), characterized by a slender shell with rounded whorls and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, lives throughout the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea at depths usually ranging between 0 and 105 m. Its synonymy is here stabilized by a neotype selection for Murex corallinus Scacchi, 1836. Ocinebrina corallinoides Pallary, 1912 (=Ocinebrina buzzurroi Cecalupo and Mariani, 2008, new synonymy), characterized by a strongly elongate and weakly convex shell and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, is endemic to the Gulf of Gabès and is here considered a distinct species, pending genetic studies. Ocinebrina reinai n. sp. is here described from the central Mediterranean Sea (where it is sympatric with O. aciculata) on the basis of morphological diagnostic features of shell (rarest presence of labral tooth, commoner presence of infrasutural apertural denticle, dark spots on the ribs and spiral sculpture with differently sized primary and secondary cords and smaller threads) and radula, confirmed by genetic data. Divergence in COI sequences with sympatric samples of O. aciculata (>7%), confirm their status as a distinct species. A comparative table reporting diagnostic features of the congeneric species of the complex and those with which the new species was previously misidentified is offered.

A new species of the genus Lindapterys Petuch 1987 is described: L. soderii from Somalia. Moreover, the description of another specimen, from New Caledonia, is given without a new name because of the presence of only one specimen.
Therefore, the genus Lindapterys currently includes two Indo-Pacific species and seven species in total.

A new species of Chicomurex that was confused with C. superbus (Sowerby, 1889) in several publications is described from Taiwan and C. problematicus (Lan, 1981) is considered a junior subjective synonym of C. superbus. The holotypes of both C. superbus and C. problematicus are illustrated and C. superbus is redescribed.

Drillholes made by naticid and muricid gastropods are frequently used in evolutionary and ecological studies because they provide direct, preservable evidence of predation. The muricidEcphorais common in many Neogene Atlantic Coastal Plain assemblages in the United States, but is frequently ignored in studies of naticid predation. We used a combination of Pliocene fossil, modern beach, and experimentally derived samples to evaluate the hypothesis thatEcphorawas an important source of drillholes in infaunal bivalve prey shared with naticids. We focused on the large, thick-shelled venerid,Mercenaria,which is commonly drilled by naticids today. Laboratory experiments, modern beach samples, and the published literature confirm that naticids preferentially drill near the umbo (significant clumping of holes), show a significant correlation between prey size and predator size (estimated by outer borehole diameter), and preferMercenaria<50 mm antero-posterior width when other prey are pr...