Laevistrombus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard 1834

Laevistrombus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1834 Figure 7 Synonymy 1834 Strombus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard, p. 75, no. 10, pl. 51, figs. 14 and 15. = Strombus taeniata Quoy—Reeve 1851, spc. 51. = Strombus canarium var. taeniatus Duclos, 1844, in Chenu, pl. 7, fig. 6. = Strombus (Strombus) isabella taeniatus Horst & Schepman, 1908, p. 213. Strombus (Strombus) canarium var isabella Lamarck — Tryon 1885, pp. 110 and 136, pl. 3, fig. 21. Strombus (Gallinula) isabella Lamarck — Melvill & Standen 1899, p. 165. Strombus canarium Linnaeus—Hinton 1972, p. 6, pl. 3, fig. 18. Hinton 1977a, p. 13, no. 5a. Hinton 1977b, p. 10, nos. 6b and c. Strombus (Laevistrombus) turturella Röding—Man in ‘T Veld & de Turck 1998, p. 98. Type material. We hereby select the only surviving syntype in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris: Collection: Molluscs: MNHN-IM-2000-32460 as lectotype of L. taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1834. Type locality. The type locality for L. taeniatus is Ambon, Indonesia. Original description. “ Strombus, testa obovata, laeve, basi striata, tribus vittis violaceo-fuscis cincta; spira brevi, mucronata; labro crasso, dilatato, antice marginato ” (Quoy & Gaimard 1834, p. 75). Translation: Strombus, shell ovate, smooth, with striate base, surrounded by three violet bands, spire short, mucronate, lip callused, dilated, anteriorly margined (Translation SM). “This small stromb has the form and the size of Canarium. Only its back is a little more abruptly bulging, and the anterior part is deeply indented. It differs from the known species by the three transverse bands of violet brown that run over the body whorl and that are divided by a background of a pretty white. The band in the middle is largest, and the posterior one is smallest. It is the one that traverses all turns of the spire by decreasing width, so as to become not more than a reddish line at the top. These three kinds of ribbons do not reach right up to the right edge, which is thick, rounded and white, of the same (colour) as the rest of the aperture and the columella. The anterior part of the canal is striated at the bottom” (Quoy & Gaimard 1834, p. 75, Translated AMD). Distribution. Laevistrombus taeniatus has a restricted range within the southwest Pacific, ranging from southern Papua to the Solomon Islands (Figure 6). There is evidence of a distributional gap between the Indonesian type population and distribution of the rarer members of the southwest Pacific populations. At the time of the Quoy and Gaimard expedition, Ambon was a significant regional trading centre (Quoy & Gaimard 1833). Records: Australia —Murray Island (Melvill & Standen 1899). Papua New Guinea —Porebada (Hinton 1972); Hula (Hinton 1972); Manus Island, Admiralty group (Hinton 1972); Loyalty Islands (Man in‘T Veld & De Turck 1998). Material examined from private collections: Papua New Guinea —No data (VC x2); Hula Village (SM x 1). Solomon Islands —No data (SM x 1); Boli Passage (SM x1). Images Published online from dealer specimen traders: Ambon, Indonesia. Discussion. Laevistrombus taeniatus possesses a high degree of variability in colouration and is constantly paler in the western side of its range. The Indonesian examples range in colour from tan to white, with a highly variable number and colouration of banding on the body whorl. The southwest Pacific representatives of this species are consistently coloured, with a large central band on the main tanned body whorl, while the two bands alluded to in the original description vary in intensity from dark to absent.