New lead-authored paper, announcing the discovery of two new peltospirid vent snails, has been published in the peer-reviewed Open Access journal Frontiers in Marine Science! Read for free here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00392
This paper describes two new species of small gastropods, belonging to the hydrothermal vent endemic family Peltospiridae, from the Longqi hydrothermal vent field (~2785 m deep) on the Southwestern Indian Ridge, Indian Ocean; a new genus was erected to house one of them. The descriptions are based on shell (protoconch, teleoconch, periostracum, shell microstructure), radula, as well as anatomical characters.
Lirapex politus Chen et al., 2017 (~4.5 mm shell height) is the first Indian Ocean representative of genus Lirapex which is also known from eastern Pacific and mid-Atalantic vents, and differs from the other known congeners by its lack of obvious axial sculpture (hence ‘politus’, smooth), as well as a narrower umbilicus and the final 0.5 whorl of the teleoconch being less detached.
Lirapex politus n. sp., scale bars = 1 mm.
Dracogyra subfuscus Chen et al., 2017 (~7 mm shell diameter) is a depressed, globular, coiled peltospirid with a dark periostracum; the genus Dracogyra Chen et al., 2017 was established for this species. It is most similar to Depressigyra globulus Warén & Bouchet, 1989 known from the eastern Pacific, but easily separated from it by a lack of basal notch in the aperture and a more depressed shell with narrower umbilicus. Furthermore, the radula of D. subfuscus is highly characteristic with the central tooth being very wide and compressed.
Dracogyra subfuscus n. gen., n. sp., scale bars = 1 mm.
A Bayesian phylogeny using the mitochondrial COI barcoding gene confirmed the placement of the two new species in clade Neomphalina and family Peltospiridae. The two new species co-occur with two giant holobiont peltospirids including the scaly-foot Chrysomallon squamiferum Chen et al., 2015 and Gigantopelta aegis Chen et al., 2015, and are sometimes found on their body surface. The two new species do not host endosymbiotic bacteria and gut contents suggest that they probably feed on microbial film on chimney surfaces, as well as epibionts of the two larger peltospirids.
- Chen C*, Zhou Y, Wang C, Copley JT (2017). Two new hot-vent peltospirid snails (Gastropoda: Neomphalina) from Longqi hydrothermal field, Southwest Indian Ridge. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4: 392. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00392