Galapagos Species Database

Taxon category: Accepted

Syn.: Mitra lineata Broderip, 1835 (non Schumacher, 1817). Finet (2001): specimens from the Galapagos were often referred to this species prior to the description of Subcancilla edithrexae by Sphon (1976); actually, some of these specimens may be the new S. edithrexae, as for example the specimens from “Barrington Isl., 5-10 fms.” cited by Cernohorsky (1991: 70), which are now labelled paratypes of edithrexae (AMNH: 111069) (Emerson, pers. comm.). On the other hand, as both species are hard to tell apart on shell characters only, and as no comparison between them was made by Sphon (1976) in his description of edithrexae, whether edithrexae is a valid species endemic to the Galapagos, or a local form and thus a synonym of erythrogramma, remains a question for further research. This question was also stated by Cernohorsky (1991): “The close resemblance of “Ziba” erythrogramma and Z. edithrexae may present difficulties in identification and it remains to be ascertained whether all “erythrogramma” type of shells on the Galapagos Islands are edithrexae or whether both species live there.”

Origin: Native

Distribution: From bahia San Luis Gonzaga to Colombia.

• Cernohorsky, W.O. (1991) The Mitridae of the world. Part 2. The subfamily Mitrinae concluded and subfamilies Imbricariinae and Cylindromitrinae. Monographs of Marine Mollusca 4: 1-164, pls. 1-155.
• Finet, Y. (2001) The marine mollusks of the Galapagos Islands: a documented faunal list. Editions du Muséum d' Histoire naturelle, Genève, 237 pp.
• Horton, T. Horton, T., Kroh, A., Ahyong, S., Bailly, N., Boyko, C. B., Brandão, S. N., Gofas, S., Hooper, J. N. A., Hernandez, F., Holovachov, O., Mees, J., Molodtsova, T. N., Paulay, G., Decock, W., Dekeyzer, S., Poffyn, G., Vandepitte, L., Vanhoorne, B., Adlard, R., ... Zhao, Z. (2021) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ.
• Keen, A.M. (1958) Sea Shells of Tropical West America. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, 1st edition, 624 pp.
• Sphon, G.G. (1976) The Mitridae of the Galapagos Islands. The Nautilus 90(2): 63-64.