“Antimargarita maoria n.sp.
Figs 17-19
DESCRIPTION: Shell of medium size, depressed turbinate, solid, iridescent, umbilicate. Whorls 7, including a protoconch of a single smooth, shining whorl. Teleoconch whorls sculptured with raised spiral cords, 3 of lesser strength pm shoulder and 5 or 6 below. Last whorl with 7 spirals on shoulder, and 26 across rest of whorl and base. Spiral cords and interstices crossed by fine, oblique axials which render the spirals minutely nodulous. Shoulder gently concave, remainder of whorls gently rounded. Aperture oval, outer lip thin, crenulated by spirals. Columella straight, slightly oblique, columellar lip slightly reflected into umbilicus. Umbilicus wide, perspective, spiral sculpture ceasing just within umbilical boundary.
Height 12.6 mm, diameter 14.3 mm (holotype); height 13.5 mm, diameter 14.7 mm (paratype), the height/diameter ratios in 5 specimens ranging from 82-95.
TYPE MATERIAL: NZOI Stn A730, 49º40.3’S, 178º53.3’E, off Antipodes Islands, 307 m, 7 Nov. 1962 (holotype H.552 and paratype, P.761 in NZOI); Eltanin Stn 1851, 49º40’S, 178º53’E, off Antipodes Islands, 540-476 m (seven paratypes in USNMNH, USNM 860154, and three in MONZ, M.89792).
REMARKS: At first sight this new species would appear to be related to Solariella, but the radula shows that it does not belong to this genus. Powell (1951: p.100) commented in the similarities in shell characteristics between Falsimargarita, Antimargarita, and Solariella, but showed that they were widely separated on radular characters. The radular of A. maoria agrees well with that figured by Eales (1923: 7, fig. 4) for A. dulcis (Smith, 1907), and maoria should therefore be placed in Antimargarita.
Examination of the radula shows that the Antarctic Minolia thielei Hedley, 1916 should be placed in the genus Falsimargarita. The only species to be retained in Antimargarita are therefore the type species (T. dulcis Smith) and A. smithiana (Hedley, 1916) together with the new species. The proportions of the shell in A. maoria are rather variable as the measurements show and the range encompasses the proportions of both A. dulcis and A. smithiana. In sculpture the new species is closer to A. dulcis, differing in the considerably greater size, its greater number of spiral cords, its more inflated spire whorls, and the presence of spirals on the shoulder. Both A. dulcis and A. smithiana are restricted to Antarctic waters, but the presence of the genus in deep water off southern New Zealand is not surprising.”
(Dell, 1995: 11-13)
Antimargarita maoria is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Margaritidae.[1]
The height of the shell attains 12 mm, its diameter 14 mm.
This marine species is endemic to the Antipodes Islands, New Zealand.
Antimargarita maoria is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Margaritidae.