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Available online at http://www.urpjournals.com International Journal of Research in Marine Sciences Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved Original Article First report and second record of Indothais blanfordi (Melvill) [Gastropoda: Neogastropoda: Muricidae] from east coast of India with nomenclature update and bifurcation of Indian Rapaninae M.V. Rao1, P.P.N. Vijay Kumar2, S.K. Pati3, M. Balaji1 Wood Biodegradation Centre (Marine), Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Visakhapatnam, India, 530 003 2 Department of Zoology, Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam, India, 530 003 3 Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Akurdi, Pune, India, 411 044 Corresponding author: Ph: 91-891-2704502, Fax: 91-891-2793022, E-mail: [email protected] 1 Received 17 September 2013; accepted 30 September 2013 Abstract Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893), a muricid gastropod is being reported for the first time from Machilipatnam (16º 8′ 42.82″ N and 81º 10′ 41.83″ E) in Andhra Pradesh State situated on the northern east coast of India. This species was earlier recorded from Kalpakkam on the southern east coast, but not brought to light as first record to the east coast of India. Nevertheless, its occurrence was reported earlier from Andaman-Nicobar Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean and a number of localities along the west coast. The present record of the species extends its distributional range further north of Kalpakkam on the east coast of India. In this connection, a systematic account of the species is presented in this communication. Further, as the latest global molecular phylogenetic findings elucidate the exact taxonomic composition of Rapaninae and Ergalataxinae subfamilies of Muricidae, the existing nomenclature of Indian Rapaninae was updated in addition to bifurcation of the group in consonance. © 2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved Key words: First report, Rapaninae, Ergalataxinae, Indothais, Machilipatnam, India 1. Introduction East coast of India, among others, is very rich and diverse in molluscan fauna represented by several families including Muricidae that embraces a number of genera and species of murices, drupes, purpuras, rapa shells, rock whelk shells, etc. [1]. These forms mostly dwell in shallow rocky shores and reef ecosystems exerting significant influence on the structure of intertidal faunal communities, especially due to their carnivorous nature of feeding mainly upon other molluscs and barnacles [2-5]. Soft parts of these gastropods are commercially important as food, drug and dye sources while hard shells find a place in shell-craft [6-8]. A few muricids also turn out to be pests causing considerable damage to various exploited natural bivalve beds and commercial bivalve cultures further to becoming invasive shellfish pests [9]. Certain other species such as Indothais gradata, Purpura bufo, Purpura persica, Reishia clavigera, R. bronni, Stramonita rustica and Vasula deltoidea are employed as effective semi-quantitative bioindicators in monitoring organotin pollution in marine ecosystems [5, 10-12]. Of the various of genera of Muricidae family, many members of the subfamily Rapaninae are conspicuous on boulders, rocks, breakwater structures, granite bunds, other reinforced cement concrete installations, oyster beds, 50 mangrove tree trunks and their supporting root systems along the coasts [6, 13-16]. In contrast to this general occurrence, a Rapaninae member was noticed among the biofouling assemblages developed on wooden test panels exposed at Machilipatnam minor port in Andhra Pradesh State on the east coast of India (Fig. 1). The species called on the panels evidently to prey upon the polychaetes, balanids, bivalves and other gastropods that colonized the said substrata owing to its carnivorous habit [13, 17]. Although most species of Rapaninae are common worldwide, predominantly tropical in distribution and easily available, the group remained taxonomically confusing till recently. Based on well resolved global molecular phylogenetic work on Rapaninae [5, 18-20], a new classification was proposed by Claremont et al. (2013) [5] wherein a new genus Indothais for the Indo-west Pacific region with „originally described Murex lacera Born, 1778‟ as its type species was also created. Thus, the species presently collected and initially identified as Thais blanfordi Melvill, 1893 became the rechristened Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893). Incidentally, the occurrence of I. blanfordi forms second distributional record to the east coast of India while its first record along the same coast remained obscure as „gray record‟ in the biofouling inventory of Rajagopal et al. (1997) [21]. In this regard, a International Journal of Research in Marine Sciences 2013; 2(2): 50-55 systematic account of the species is presented here. Further, as the above phylogenetic findings elucidate the exact taxonomic composition of Rapaninae and Ergalataxinae subfamilies of Muricidae, the existing nomenclature of Indian Rapaninae was updated in addition to bifurcation of the group in consonance. Figure 1: Location map of collection site 2. Systematics Phylum MOLLUSCA Linnaeus, 1758 Class GASTROPODA Cuvier, 1795 Subclass CAENOGASTROPODA Cox, 1960 Order NEOGASTROPODA Wenz, 1938 Superfamily MURICOIDEA Rafinesque, 1815 Family MURICIDAE Rafinesque, 1815 Subfamily RAPANINAE Gray, 1853 Genus Indothais Claremont, Vermeij, Williams & Reid, 2013 Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893) 2.1. Synonymy Purpura tissoti: Petit, 1852 (in part) [22]; Purpura blanfordi: Melvill 1893 [23]; Thais (Thaisella) blanfordi: Kilburn, 1972 [24]; Thais blanfordi: Tan & Sigurdsson, 1996a [14]; Subba Rao & Surya Rao, 1993 [13]; Subba Rao, 2003 [1]; Thaisella blanfordi: Houart, Kilburn & Marais, 2010 [25]. 2.2. Material examined WBCMM-146, 16 specimens, Machilipatnam, 16º 8′ 42.82″ N - 81º 10′ 41.83″ E, PPN Vijay Kumar, 2010 51 (Deposited in Wood Biodegradation Centre Marine Museum). 2.3. Measurements Shell length: 21.3 to 30.0 mm (25.4 ± 2.51 mm); shell width: 14.3 to 19.0 mm (16.5 ± 1.16 mm); spire length: 10.0 to 14.5 mm (12.1 ± 1.44 mm). 2.4. Diagnosis Shell uniformly brownish-orange in colour; upto 30.0 mm in length; biconical; whorls five, angulated, angulations simple; spire non-perforate, high, broad; protoconch distinct, angular; body whorl larger than spire and with a distinct angulation at the shoulder; body whorl bears four rows of primary spiral cords, shoulder row with prominent compressed tubercles, second row with smaller tubercles, third and fourth rows with obsolete tubercles; primary spiral cords separated by three secondary cords; spiral striae between cords narrow, shallow; sutures wavy; aperture ovate, anal sulcus well-developed, shallow, broad, with marginal ridge; peristome flesh coloured; outer lip crenulate, palatal wall with six lirae arranged in pairs; inner lip smooth, slightly twisted anteriorly; siphonal canal very short, broadly open. 2.5. Habitat Under natural situations, the assemblages of I. blanfordi are reported to be found in the mid littoral zone on coastal rocky shores, oyster beds, mangrove trunks and other substrata mentioned in section 1. However, in the present instance, such an assemblage of the species was recorded among biofouling complexes on wooden test panels (Bombax ceiba L., Semul, 150 x 80 x 25 mm size) on two discrete occasions during January 2010 and April 2010. 2.6. Distribution Around the world, the species is distributed along the coasts of Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Persian Gulf, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore [1, 13, 14]. In India, the species is found on the coasts of Gujarat (Kutch, Bhadreswar, Mandvi and Rukmavati river mouth); Diu (Goghla); Maharashtra (Mahim, Chowpatty, Mumbai, Alibag, Ratnagiri, Jivanabander and Vengurla); Goa (Dona Paula, Colva and Galgibaga); Karnataka (Karwar, Kumta, Dhareshwar, Murdeswar and St. Mary Islands); Kerala (Kannur, Thalassery, Kozhikode, Narakkal, Kochi, and Kollam); the eastern sub-oceanic Andaman-Nicobar Islands [1, 13, 14, 23, 26-35] and Tamil Nadu (Kalpakkam) [21] (Fig. 3). Figure 3: Distribution of Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893) in India ( previous records; present record) International Journal of Research in Marine Sciences 2013; 2(2): 50-55 3. Nomenclature update and bifurcation of Indian Rapaninae In the light of the revision of the classification of Rapaninae and creation of the new genus Indothais by Claremont et al. (2013) [5] as mentioned in section 1, the nomenclature of various species of the subfamily reported so far from India was updated and the taxon bifurcated into the subfamilies Rapaninae and Ergalataxinae. A list of valid species was prepared out of most pertinent nomenclature from among various synonyms presented in latest publications/ data bases (Table 1). The compilation revealed that so far 55 species belonging to 13 genera, viz., Cronia, Drupa, Drupella, Maculotriton,, Mancinella, Morula, Nassa, Orania, Purpura, Rapana, Semiricinula, Thais and Vexilla were reported to be rapanines from India with no record of any species under Ergalataxinae [1,14-16, 33, 35-38]. Of these, the nomenclature of 17 species remained unchanged and 34 species updated while 4 species (Cronia contracta, Cymia lacera, Purpura vexillum and Thais granulata) are presumed to be nomina dubia in the absence of their reference in any standard publication or database. With this update, the 51 valid species got dispersed into 25 genera encompassing 12 genera afresh but with the exclusion of the genus Thais totally. Among them, 30 species falling under 15 genera remain now under Rapaninae while 19 species falling under 10 genera got bifurcated into Ergalataxinae (Fig. 4). Rest of the two species, namely, Purpura bufo Lamarck, 1822 and Mncinella armigera Link, 1807 were kept unassigned. Among the former subfamily, the genus Indothais is richest Figure 4: Earlier and present composition of genera under represented by 7 species and of the latter subfamily, the Rapaninae and Egalataxinae in India (Bare number genus Morula is dominant represented by 4 species, while indicates Rapanine; Number suffixed with „E‟ indicates species composition of other genera in both subfamilies Ergalataxinae) ranged from 1 to 4. Table 1: Nomenclature update and bifurcation of Indian Rapaninae Sl. Existing nomenclature of species under Updated nomenclature of species and bifurcated taxa No. traditionally conceived Rapaninae based on new classification Rapaninae 1 Semiricinula konkanensis (Melvill, 1893)[40] Semiricinula konkanensis (Melvill, 1893)[ 5] [37] 2 Drupa chrysostoma Semiricinula chrysostoma (Deshayes, 1844)[41] [37] 3 Dupa Drupina lobata Drupina lobata (Blainville, 1832)[5] [16] 4 Drupa morum Roeding Drupa morum Roeding, 1798[5] [37] 5 Drupa ricinus Drupa ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758)[5, 18, 20] [37] 6 Drupa Ricinella clathrata miticula Drupa clathrata miticula (Lamarck, 1822)[39] [16] 7 Drupa rubusidaeus Roeding Drupa rubusidaeus Roeding, 1798[5] [33] 8 Drupa tuberculata (Blainville, 1832) Neorapana tuberculata (Sowerby, 1835)[5] [37] [35, 38] 9 Mancinella alouina , Mancinella bufo Mancinella alouina (Roeding, 1798)[5] [1, 35] 10 Morula marginatra (Blainville, 1832) Neothais marginatra (Blainville, 1832)[5] [1] 11 Nassa serta (Bruguiere, 1789) Nassa serta (Bruguiere, 1789)[5, 18] [1] 12 Purpura buccinea Deshayes, 1844 Taurasia striata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833)[5] [1] 13 Purpura panama (Roeding, 1798) Purpura panama (Roeding, 1798)[ 5] [1] 14 Purpura persica (Linnaeus, 1758) Purpura persica (Linnaeus, 1758)[ 5] [1] 15 Rapana rapiformis (Born, 1778) Rapana rapiformis (Born, 1778)[5, 18] [36] 16 Thais biserialis (Blainville, 1832) Stramonita biserialis (Blainville, 1832)[5] [1, 35] 17 Thais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893) Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893)[ 5] [1, 35] 18 Thais lacera (Born, 1778) Indothais lacera (Born, 1778)[5] [1] 19 Thais echinata (Blainville, 1832) Mancinella echinata (Blainville, 1832)[5] [33, 37] 20 Thais echinulata Mancinella echinulata (Lamarck, 1822)[5] [1, 35] 21 Thais hippocastanum (Linnaeus, 1758) Thalessa aculeata (Deshayes & Milne-Edwards, 1844)$ [5, 20] 52 International Journal of Research in Marine Sciences 2013; 2(2): 50-55 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Thais intermedia (Kiener, 1836)[1] Thais javanica (Philippi, 1848)[15] Thais malayensis Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996[14] Thais pinangensis Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996[14] Thais rufotincta Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996[15] Thais sacellum (Lamarck)[16] Thais tissoti (Petit, 1852)[1, 14, 35] Thais tuberosa (Roeding, 1798)[1] Vexilla vexillum (Gmelin, 1791)[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Cronia amygdale[37] Cronia (Ergalatax) contracta (Reeve, 1846)[1] Cronia fiscella[37] Cronia ozenneana[37] Cronia ochrostoma (Blainville, 1832)[1] Orania subnodulosa (Melvill, 1893)[40] Drupa heptagonalis[37] Drupa margariticola[37] Morula granulata (Duclos, 1832)[1, 35] Drupa xuthedra[37] Drupella concateana[37] Drupella cornus[37] Maculotriton serriale[37] Morula anaxares (Kiener, 1836)[1, 40] Morula biconica (Blainville, 1832)[1] Morula funiculata (Reeve, 1846)[1] Morula nodicostata (Pease, 1868)[1, 35] Morula musiva[37] Morula uva (Roeding, 1798)[1] Menathais intermedia (Kiener, 1836)[5, 20] Indothais javanica (Philippi, 1848)[5] Indothais malayensis (Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996)[5] Indothais pinangensis (Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996)[5] Indothais rufotincta (Tan &Sigurdsson, 1996)[5] Indothais sacella (Gmelin, 1791)[5] Semiricinula tissoti (Petit, 1852)*[5] Menathais tuberosa Roeding, 1798[5, 18, 20] Vexilla vexillum (Gmelin, 1791)[5] Ergalataxinae Cronia amygdala (Kiener, 1835)[19, 20] Ergalatax contracta (Reeve, 1846) [19, 20] Muricodrupa fiscella (Gmelin, 1791) [5, 19, 20] Pascula ozennaeana (Crosse, 1861)[41] Pascula ochrostoma (Blainville, 1832)[5, 18-20] Orania subnodulosa (Melvill, 1893)[40] Ergalatax heptagonalis (Reeve, 1846)[39] Drupella margariticola (Broderip, 1833)@[19] Tenguella granulata (Duclos, 1832)[5] Orania xuthedra (Melvill, 1893)[41] Drupella rugosa (Born, 1778)[19] Drupella cornus Roeding, 1798[5, 19] Maculotriton serriale (Deshayes, 1834)[19] Morula anaxares (Kiener, 1836)[18] Morula (Habromorula) biconica (Blainville, 1832)[41] Oppomorus funiculatus (Reeve, 1846)[39] Morula nodicostata (Pease, 1868)[41] Tenguella musiva (Kiener, 1836)[5, 19, 20] Morula uva (Roeding, 1798)[41] Unassigned Purpura bufo Lamarck, 1822[5] Mancinella armigera Link, 1807[5] Thais bufo (Lamarck, 1822)[1] Thais armigera (Link, 1807)[1] Nomina dubia 1 Cronia contracta[37] 2 Cymia lacera[37] 3 Purpura vexillum[37] 4 Thais granulata[7] Numbers in superscript indicate publication under references; $ Replacement name for Murex hippocastanum (Linnaeus, 1758) as per Tan (2000) [10] and Claremont et al. (2013) [5]; * Misprint as 1853 for 1852 in Claremont et al. (2013) [5]; @ Recognised as two variants, viz., Drupella margariticola „Oceanic‟ and Drupella margariticola „Continental‟ 1 2 4. Conclusion Indothais blanfordi (Melvill, 1893) is a first report and second record to the east coast of India and that existing species of Indian Rapaninae are distinguishable into two subfamilies, viz., Rapaninae with 30 species belonging to 15 genera and Ergalataxinae with 19 species belonging to 10 genera; according to the latest classification based on well resolved global molecular phylogenetic work. Acknowledgements The authors thank Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehra Dun; Directors, Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata for encouragement. They are grateful to Dr. K.V. 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Source of support: Nil; Conflict of interest: None declared 55 International Journal of Research in Marine Sciences 2013; 2(2): 50-55