Western Atlantic Prochaetodermatidae from 35°N south to the Argentine Basin including the Gulf of Mexico (Mollusca: Aplacophora)

Abstract

Nine new species of Prochaetodermatidae from the western Atlantic Ocean south of 35°N (off North Carolina, off eastern Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Guiana Basin, Argentine Basin) are described: Chevroderma cuspidatum, Claviderma amplum, Cl. compactum, Cl. crassum, Cl. mexicanum, Prochaetoderma gilrowei, Niteomica captainkiddae, Spathoderma bulbosum, and S. quadratum. Four species are endemics, C. cuspidatum and S. quadratum, Gulf of Mexico; Cl. crassum, Guiana Basin, and Cl. compactum, Argentine Basin. Added to those described earlier for the northwestern, northern, and eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (Scheltema 1985; Scheltema & Ivanov 2000), they complete the descriptions of all Atlantic prochaetodermatid species known to us. Two previously described species are amphi-Atlantic: S. grossum Scheltema & Ivanov, described from the eastern Atlantic, was found in the collections made in the Guiana and Argentine Basins, and Ch. turnerae Scheltema, which had already been described from the northwestern and eastern Atlantic and the Argentine Basin, was not found in the Guiana Basin material.