Abstract
ABSTRACT The anatomy and taxonomy of two western African nassariids are explored, based on samples collected in Morocco. The species are Dorsanum miran, the type species of the genus, and Bullia granulosa, a characteristic member of Bullia. Both possess the typical morphological and anatomical features of the family, including a pair of metapodial tentacles, a well-developed proboscis, elongated odontophore with fusion of cartilages, and highly concentrated central nervous system. Both species have in common the socket-like heads, bifid columellar muscles, and reduction of the gland of Leiblein. D. miran has well-developed eyes, cement gland, and preputial protection at the penis tip. B. granulosa lacks eyes, has multiplicity of some buccal mass muscles (transverse muscles and main dorsal tensor muscles — m2), and a thick-walled and broad anterior oesophagus. The characters are discussed in the light of present knowledge concerning caenogastropod taxonomy.
Highlights
This paper is part of a project reviewing the South American species usually included in the region’s nassariid genus Buccinanops d’Orbigny, 1841
Two of the most used, Dorsanum Gray, 1847 and Bullia Gray, 1834, both originally described from Africa, have some taxonomic problems associated with them and they are poorly defined at the anatomical level
There is no doubt about the validity of both species, the shells of Dorsanum miran and Bullia granulosa are so similar that they are commonly found together in the same lot in collections, as if the shells are those of a single species
Summary
This paper is part of a project reviewing the South American species usually included in the region’s nassariid genus Buccinanops d’Orbigny, 1841. Simone 1996, 2011) describe the anatomy of soft parts of these taxa and all of those descriptions have been restricted so far to South American species These three genera were included by Brown (1982) in what he called the “Bullia group”. Dorsaninae is restricted to Dorsanum, while the genera Bullia (from Africa) and Buccinanops (from South America) comprise the Bulliinae Despite these definitions, the differences amongst the subfamilies remain http://africaninvertebrates.org urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4D7F54FA-2DD2-466A-9D47-FA1F6739F129. It is quite possible that additional information on their representatives, in terms of anatomy, could bring new insights, as the shell characters so far invoked have been insufficient to define the subfamilies and are not applicable to all included species As regards this scenario, the present paper deals with two species from the western coast of Africa: Dorsanum miran, type species of Dorsanum, and Bullia granulosa (La marck, 1822). The present paper is almost purely descriptive, with discussion limited to data published so far
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