Liloa mongii (Audouin, 1826)

Description

A tiny cephalaspidean with a translucent, tightly coiled shell. Audouin described several minute Bulla species from Savigny's Egyptian collection together; he gave no individual diagnosis but figured the shells in the plate (fig. 7 for B. Mongi) and noted the natural size as very small with a "rounded, finely sculptured shell". Lives in shallow sandy substrata.

Distribution

Indian Ocean and western Pacific, with original records from the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt). The type material was collected by Jules-César Savigny during the Napoleonic Expédition d'Égypte.

Etymology

The specific epithet mongii honours Gaspard Monge (1746-1818), the French mathematician (Comte de Péluse) who served as a leading scientist on Napoleon's Expédition d'Égypte and was one of the founding collaborators of the resulting Description de l'Égypte.

Remarks

Originally described as Bulla Mongi by Audouin in his "Explication sommaire des planches de Mollusques" within Savigny's plates of Egyptian and Syrian molluscs (Description de l'Égypte, Histoire Naturelle, Mollusques pl. 5 fig. 7, 1826). The species is one of seven small Bulla in the same plate, all named after collaborators of the Description: Girard, Villiers, Fourier, Desgenettes, and Monge.

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References

• Bulla Mongi, Audouin V. (1826). Explication sommaire des planches de Mollusques de l'Égypte et de la Syrie publiées par Jules-César Savigny. In: Description de l'Égypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'Expédition de l'Armée française. Histoire Naturelle, Tome 1(4): 7-56. Imprimerie Impériale, Paris.
• 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.