Search

The mollusc fauna of the Mediterranean Sea is still considered as the best-known marine mollusc fauna in the world. The previous modern checklists of marine Mollusca were produced by joint teams of amateurs and professionals. During the last years the Italian Society of Malacology (Società Italiana di Malacologia – S.I.M.) maintained an updated version of the Mediterranean checklist, that served as the backbone for the development of the new Italian checklist. According to the current version (updated on April 1st, 2021), 1,777 recognised species of marine molluscs are present in the Italian Economic Exclusive Zone, including also the Tyrrhenian coasts of Corsica and the continental shelf of the Maltese archipelago. The new checklist shows an increase of 17% of the species reported in the 1995 Checklist. This is largely (yet not solely) due to the new wave of studies based on Integrative Taxonomy approaches. A total of 135 species (7.6%) are strictly endemic to the Italian waters; 44 species (2.5%) are alien and correspond to the 28% of the Mediterranean alien marine molluscs. All eight extant molluscan classes are represented. The families represented in the Italian fauna are 307, an increase of 14.6% from the first checklist, partly due to new records and partly to new phylogenetic systematics. Compared with the whole Mediterranean malacofauna, the Italian component represents 71% in species and 61% in families, which makes it a very remarkable part of the Mediterranean fauna.

Three new species of the neogastropod family Raphitomidae Bellardi, 1875, are described from the Croatian waters of the Adriatic Sea: Raphitoma petanii Prkic, Giannuzzi-Savelli & Pusateri n. sp., R. pusaterii Prkic & Giannuzzi-Savelli n. sp. and R. stanici Prkic, Giannuzzi-Savelli & Pusateri n. sp. The new species are diagnosed by teleoconch characters and by genetic data (COI sequences) in an integrative taxonomy framework. They belong to a group of species with microgranules on the external surface of all teleoconch whorls and all three have a multispiral protoconch indicating a planktotrophic larval phase. The first two species are so far known only from material found in Croatia. R. petanii Prkic, Giannuzzi-Savelli & Pusateri n. sp. and R. stanici Prkic, Giannuzzi-Savelli & Pusateri n. sp. are predominantly shallow-water species, whereas R. pusaterii Prkic & Giannuzzi-Savelli n. sp. has been so far collected only from deeper bottoms with presence of the red coral, Corallium rubrum (Linnaeus, 1758). Syntypes of Murex echinatusBrocchi, 1814 are figured and commented.

Giannuzzi-Savelli, Riccardo, Pusateri, Francesco, Prkić, Jakov, Bartolini, Stefano, Russini, Valeria, Fassio, Giulia, Oliverio, Marco (2020): Revision of Mediterranean and NE Atlantic Raphitomidae (Gastropoda, Conoidea) 8: The genus Leufroyia Monterosato, 1884. Zoosystema 42 (22): 433-473, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2020v42a22

The systematics of several Eastern Atlantic conoidean species, traditionally ascribed to the genus RaphitomaBellardi, 1847, are revised on the basis of DNA sequence data from three gene regions (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, 16S rRNA and 12S rRNA). We assign genus ranking to three major lineages (Raphitoma, CyrilliaKobelt, 1905 and LeufroyiaMonterosato, 1884) and suggest that two West African species belong in the subgenus Daphnella (Paradaphne) Laseron, 1954. A new classification, based on molecular systematics and critical study of morphology, is provided for all Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean species that are currently ascribed to Raphitoma s.l. The genus ClathromangeliaMonterosato, 1884 is confirmed as belonging to Raphitomidae. Phylogenetic relationships and genetic distances suggest that Raphitoma maculosaHøisæter, 2016 and R. obesaHøisæter, 2016 may be divergent morphotypes of R. bicolor (Risso, 1826) and Cyrillia aequalis (Jeffreys, 1867), respectively.