Mnestia girardi (Audouin, 1826)

Description

A small cephalaspidean with a tightly coiled translucent shell. Audouin 1826 described several minute Bulla species together from Savigny's Egyptian collection; for B. Girard he gave no individual diagnosis but figured the shell (fig. 3) and noted that the species is "excessively small" — natural size shown alongside an enlarged figure. Distinguished from related minute Bulla in the plate by shell sculpture and proportions.

Distribution

Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Mediterranean. The type material was collected by Jules-César Savigny during the Napoleonic Expédition d'Égypte (1798-1801).

Etymology

The specific epithet girardi honours Pierre-Simon Girard (1765-1836), the French civil engineer who served on Napoleon's Expédition d'Égypte and was a leading collaborator of the Description de l'Égypte.

Remarks

Originally described as Bulla Girard 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. 3, 1826). Subsequently transferred to Mnestia H. Adams & A. Adams, 1854. Junior synonyms include Bulla bizona A. Adams, 1850, Cylichna girardi, Cylichnina girardi, Retusa girardi, Ventomnestia girardi, and Ventomnestia kawamurai Habe, 1950.

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References

• Bulla Girard, 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.