THE SUBFAMILY TELLININAE IN SOUTH AFRICAN WATERS (BIVALVIA, MOLLUSCA) KENNETH J. BOSS CONTENTS Introduction 81 Acknowledgments 82 Abbreviations 83 Taxonomic characters 83 Remarks on zoogeography _. 85 Systematic section 89 Family Tellinidae — 89 Subfamily Tellininae 89 Tellinella 89 Arcopagia 104 Quidnipagus 108 Serratina -112 Pharaonella 116 Eurytellina 120 Tellinides 127 Homalina 133 Cadella 136 Moerella 140 Angulus 148 Species incorrectly placed in the Tellininae 150 Scissulina dispar 150 Heterodonax ludwigii 153 Literature Cited .._. 155 Index 1 60 INTRODUCTION The family Tellinidae is a widely dis-tributed, entirely marine, eulamellibranch group of bivalves with three subfamilial elements — the Tellininae, the Macominae and the Strigillinae. With its phylogenetic can be taken into consideration, and since roots in the Mesozoic, the family had al-the interpretation of the differentiation of ready undergone considerable radiation by the group can be, at best, only an approxi-the Upper Cretaceous, and by the base of mation of what has actually happened, the Neogene, the lineages culminating When one studies the species-complexes in the Recent representatives had been of the South African area that are in Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 138(4) : 81-162, October, 1969 81 established. The Tellininae is a rather conspicuous member of the tropical and subtropical infaunal benthos, whereas the Macominae, possibly less highly speciated, has its stronghold in the cold temperate, boreal, and arctic realms. The Strigillinae, rounded in shape, sculptured with scissulations, and usually highly colored, is also tropical and sub-tropical in its distribution and richest in number of species in the eastern Pacific-Caribbean region (Boss, 1969). Having been for some time interested in the systematics of the genus TelJina (Boss 1966b), I began studying the species of South African waters while working on board the R/V ANTON BRUUN during Cruise 7 of the International Indian Ocean Expedition off the coast of southeast Africa. The species taken in South Africa bear considerable resemblance to those of the western Atlantic-eastern Pacific as well as the Mediterranean areas. Thus my interest in the evolution of this group and in the interrelationships of the faunas expanded into the present review of the South African species. Any geographically restricted study of widely dispersed organisms in the marine habitat is necessarily incomplete, since not all the species — either fossil or Recent —
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