Thliptodon akatukai Tokioka, 1950
[dubious species]

Overview

This is a small naked pelagic snail, smaller than 1 cm long, with a mainly transparent body only the visceral mass is seen through the body wall. The wings are well developed and implanted laterally in the barrel-shaped body. It is a rather quick swimmer that hunts shelled pteropods as food. It lives in the N-Pacific Ocean (Thliptodon akatukai).


Taxonomic Description

Animal barrel-shaped, transparent. Visceral mass not extending to the posterior body pole. Fins distally wider and their ends are more spatula-shaped than in Thliptodon gegenbauri. For the remaining characters there is a strong resemblance to the latter species. The only specimen known to science was the holotype. This species is briefly described here as it may be a valid species, though this is not clear from the original description.

Juveniles

A special description is not available.

Reproduction

This species is a protandric hermaphrodite.

Ecology

This species is a carnivore.

Distribution

This species is only known from its type locality off Seto, Japan, near the surface.

Types

Thliptodon akatukai Tokioka, 1950: 55, fig. 9.
Types are lost (pers. comm. Dr. T. Tokioka).
Type locality: Near Seto, Japan.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Subclass Euthyneura
Order Gymnosomata
Suborder Gymnosomata
Family Clionidae
Subfamily Thliptodontinae
Genus Thliptodon
Species Thliptodon akatukai

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Not included in WoRMS database

Scientific synonyms and common names

Thliptodon akatukai Tokioka, 1950

Synonyms

Thliptodon akatukai n. sp. Tokioka, 1950: 55
Thliptodon akatsukai misspell. Tokioka, 1961: 331

Tokioka, T., 1950. Droplets from the plankton net, 7. Record of Thliptodon found near Seto. Publ. Seto mar. biol. Lab. 1(3): 155-156, 1 fig.

Tokioka, T., 1961. The structure of the operculum of the species of Atlantidae (Gastropoda: Heteropoda) as a taxonomic criterion, with records of some pelagic mollusks in the North Pacific. Publ. Seto mar. biol. Lab. 9(2): 267-332 (art. 15, pp. 1-86).

Spoel, S. van der, 1972a. A taxonomic outline of the Gymnosomata (Mollusca). Basteria 36 (2-5): 75-88.

Spoel, S. van der, 1976c. Pseudothecosomata, Gymnosomata and Heteropoda. Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema, Utrecht. 484 pp. 246 figs.

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