Cerion cabocruzense Pilsbry and de laTorre, 1943

Original Description

"NOTE ON CERION STRIATELLUM ("Fér." Guérin).—In the literature of Cerion this name has been applied by Poey and some later authors to a Cuban (Cabo Cruz) species, and by others to a Puerto Rican shell. In Manual of Conchology, 14: 278, I adopted the former identification, referring the Puerto Rican shell to C. crassilabris ("Shuttl." Sowerby). In going over cerions which have been "planted" on the Florida Keys I had occasion to review the matter, and concluded that the Cabo Cruz species is not striatellum. After getting this result independently, I found a note under the trays in the collection to the effect that Dr. de la Torre and I reached the same conclusion many years ago, when going over our series. The Cabo Cruz species may be called C. CABOCRUZENSE Pilsbry & Torre. The description of "striatellum" in Man. Conch. 14: 278 defines cabocruzense, pl. 46, fig. 21, representing the type. Figs. 20. 22, 23 are other topotypic specimens. It may prove to be connected with C. basistriatum Pils. & Van., a smooth form from the same locality. Cerion longidens Pils., Man. Conch 14: 212, is a larger and stouter shell, with slightly different parietal armature; but thorough collections from the Cabo Cruz region are needed to elucidate the relations existing between the allied forms, basistriatum, cabocruzense, and longidens. 

             CERION STRIATELLUM (Guérin) is believed to be the Puerto Rican species commonly known as C. crassilabris ("Pupa crassilabris Shuttleworth" of Sowerby, Conch. Icon. 1875, not Pupa crassilabris Parreyss in Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. Viv. 2: 134, 1848). The collection name attributed to Shuttleworth was never published by him, and in any case could not be used. C. striatellum is slightly larger than any cabocruzense seen, the type figure being 25 mm. long. Other differences are given in Man. Conch. 14: 192. The name Pupa striatella was attributed to Férussac, but was first published in Guérin-Méneville's illustrated Règne Animal of Cuvier (Moll. p. 16, pl. 6, fig. 12). This work appeared at intervals, plate 6 in 1829 or shortly after. Griffith and Pidgeon copied the figure (rather badly) in their English edition of 1834. It was this species which Dr. Bartsch planted in 1915 on Loggerhead Key and Garden Key, Tortugas, where it still flourishes.—PILSBRY.

         Helix striatella FER. in coll.—Pupa striatella Fér., GUERIN, Iconographie de Règne Animal de G. Cuvier, Moll., pl. 6, f. 12.­—DESH. in Fér., Hist., ii, p. 209, pl. 156, f. 11-13.- Cerion striatellum PILS. & VAN., Proc. A. N. S., Phila., 1896, p. 326.—Strophia striatella MAYNARD, Contrib. to Sci., iii, p. 9, pl. 2, f. 5, 6.—Pupa striatella (in part) PFR., Monogr., ii, p. 323; Malak. Bl., 1854, p. 207, pl. 3, f. 11, 12; 13,14 (?).-Not Cerion striatellum Fér., DALL, Bull. M. C. Z., xxv, no. 9, pl. 119. Not C. striatellum DALL & SIMPSON, Moll. of Porto Rico, p. 376, pl. 53, f. 4, = C. crassilabris.

            A common shell at Cabo Cruz, the southwestern cape of Santiago de Cuba province. Other localities must be viewed with suspicion. "Haiti, Porto Rico, Anegada" of Pfeiffer's Monographia are records based upon the externally similar C. crassilabris and yumaensis. But in the Malakozoologische Blätter, i, 1854, Pfeiffer reports P. stria­tella from Punta de Jicaco, Cayo de Cinco Leguos and Cayo Iguana, off the northern shore of Matanzas province. I have no idea what these shells may be, but it is not likely that they are identical with the Cabo Cruz striatellum. Probably they belong to the maritimum group.

            This species differs externally from C. crassilabris in being more straightly conic and less obtuse above, and in the strongly-developed parietal callus. It is the representation of these two features which caused me to identify Guerin's figure with the present species, rather than C. crassilabris, as some authors have done. There is more

or less uncertainty about most of the figures purporting to represent striatellum, on account of our ignorance of the internal structure of the specimens delineated. Guerin's figure is copied on pl. 46, fig. 19, but my artist made the apex too obtuse.

            This species may or may not be the Pupa striatella of Humphrey's Museum Calonnianum, p. 64, as that is undefined, though doubtless a Cerion."

 

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