THE NAUTILUS 102(3):99-101, 1988
Page 99
A New Species of Macrarene (Turbinidae: Liotiinae)
from Brazil
James H. McLean
Los Angeles County Museum of
Natural Histor)-
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90007, USA
Ricardo Silva Absalao
Renato Luiz dos Santos Cruz
Departamento de Zoologia,
Instituto de Biologia, CCS.
Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro
Ilha do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro,
Brasil 21940
ABSTRACT
The new species Macrarene digitate from the northeast Bra-
zilian coast represents the first record of this principally eastern
Pacific genus in the western Atlantic. The species had previ-
ously been known from juvenile specimens reported as Liotia
admirabilis E. A. Smith, the holotype of which is not a member
of the subfamily Liotiinae.
INTRODUCTION
The species here described was first recognized as a mem-
ber of the Brazilian fauna by Rios (1975, 1985), who
referred it to Liotia admirabilis E. A. Smith, 1890. That
species was described from the oceanic island of Saint
Helena. According to the original description. Smith's
species has a maximum dimension of I'A mm. The 15
syntypes were examined at the British Museum (Natural
History) (catalogue numbers 1889.10.1.1554-68) by the
senior author in 1984 and found to be similar (although
not clearly referable) to the skeneiform genus Parviturbo
Pilsbry & McGinty, 1945, which is not a member of the
Liotiinae.
The Brazilian species was clearly undescribed, but its
true generic affinity was not readily apparent because
the specimens available to Rios, which have been ex-
amined by McLean (figure 2), were not mature and the
expression of the mature lip was impossible to determine.
More recently, two larger specimens have come to light
and it can now be maintained that the species has the
characters of the genus Macrarene Hertlein & Strong,
1951.
Abbreviations for institutions are as follows: LACM,
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History; MORG,
Museu Oceanografico, Universidade do Rio Grande, R.S.,
IBUFRJ, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro.
SYSTEMATICS
Family Turbinidae Rafinesque, 1815
Subfamily Liotiinae H. & A. Adams, 1854
Shells of the subfamily are characterized by turbiniform
to discoidal profiles, nacreous interiors, fine lamellar
sculpture, intritacalx (calcified periostracum) in most
genera, circular apertures, and multispiral opercula with
calcareous beads. Radula like that of members of other
turbinid subfamilies.
Although previously treated by most authors as a full
family, the Liotiinae have recently been ranked as a
subfamily of Turbinidae by McLean (1987).
Genus Macrarene Hertlein & Strong, 1951
Type species (original designation): Liotia californica
Dall, 1908. Recent, off Baja California, Mexico.
Macrarene species are characterized by turbinate white
shells, broad umbilici, and presence of axial ribs and
spiral cords that form spines at their intersections. Spac-
ing of the axial ribs increases in the final whorl. In some
species the ribs then become more closely spaced in the
final quarter whorl. The final lip is not thickened at
maturity.
Some Macrarene species reach relatively large sizes.
The genus differs from Arene in lacking shell pigmen-
tation and in having the spacing of the axial sculpture
increasingly separated as the shell matures. The white-
shelled genus Liotia is smaller and retains tight spacing
of the axial sculpture.
The white-shelled, new world Liotiine genera Mac-
rarene, Liotia, and Cyclostrema differ as a group from
those of the Indo-Pacific and Australasian regions in lack-
ing the thickened mature lips that characterize the gen-
era Bathtjiiotina Habe, 1961, Liotina Fischer, 1885,
Dentarene Iredale, 1929, and Austroliotia Cotton, 1948.
BioStor
