Taxonomy of and biological notes on the bivalve genusMicrogloma, with comments on protobranch nomenclature

Abstract

Abstract The protobranch bivalve genus Microgloma Sanders & Allen, 1973 includes 3 or 4 minute species, shell length 0.85–1.1 mm. They are progenetic and their systematic position proposed herein, in the Nuculanidae (Nuculanoidea), is concluded from their similarity to young specimens of that family and sperm morphology. The genus was hitherto classified in Pristiglomidae (Nuculoidea). Microgloma pusilla (Jeffreys, 1879) occurs on the European continental shelf and slope from Iceland and Norway to the Mediterranean Sea at depths between 200 and 1200 m. Microgloma lumidula (Monterosato, 1880) (new synonym: M. lumerae Sanders & Allen, 1973) occurs from the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea to the Canary Islands at depths between 200 and 2351 m. Phaseolus guilonardi Hoeksema, 1993 from the Netherlands and Atlantic France, is tentatively included in Microgloma (new combination). A few live M. pusilla were kept in the laboratory for nearly four years and the development of five young born there, was foll...