Lamprohaminoea evelinae Oskars & Malaquias, 2020

Description

A very small bubble snail, the shell only about 5 mm high. The body is whitish-translucent and densely marked with rounded orange-to-yellow blotches of variable size over the cephalic shield, the wing-like parapodial lobes and the mantle; the blotches may fuse, and fine white pigment is scattered in the spaces between them. The thin, smooth, translucent rounded shell is largely enveloped by the soft body. It can be told from the similar Lamprohaminoea cymbalum (broad orange bands and spots ringed with opaque white) and Lamprohaminoea ovalis (rounded black and purple spots).

Distribution

The type locality is Pago Bay, Guam. The species is confirmed from the Mariana Islands and Guam, Panglao in the Philippines, Okinawa in Japan, and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and most likely also occurs in Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and Indonesia, ranging widely across the tropical to subtropical Indo-West Pacific.

Etymology

The specific epithet evelinae honours Evelina Oskars, daughter of T. R. Oskars (one of the describing authors), who was born while the study was being carried out.

Remarks

A haminoeid bubble snail that grazes on algae on sandy and muddy bottoms. Long overlooked and treated in field guides and online simply as an unnamed bubble snail before being formally described in 2020.

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References

• ブドウガイ属の1種 1, 小野篤司. (2004). 沖縄のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
• Lamprohaminoea sp. 2, Oskars T.R. & Malaquias M.A.E. (2019). A molecular phylogeny of the Indo-West Pacific species of Haloa sensu lato gastropods (Cephalaspidea: Haminoeidae): Tethyan vicariance, generic diversity, and ecological specialization. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 139: 106557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106557
• Oskars T.R., Too C.C., Rees D., Mikkelsen P.M., Willassen E. & Malaquias M.A.E. (2019). A molecular phylogeny of the gastropod family Haminoeidae sensu lato (Heterobranchia: Cephalaspidea): a generic revision. Invertebrate Systematics 33(3): 426-472.
• Lamprohaminoea evelinae sp. nov., Oskars T.R. & Malaquias M.A.E. (2020). Systematic revision of the Indo-West Pacific colourful bubble-snails of the genus Lamprohaminoea Habe, 1952 (Cephalaspidea: Haminoeidae). Invertebrate Systematics. 34(7): 727-756.