''Scutalus mariopenai'' is a species of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

, a terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk in the family

Bulimulidae Bulimulidae is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to large, air-breathing, tropical and sub-tropical land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Orthalicoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Bulimulidae Tryon, ...

. The specific name ''mariopenai'' honours Mario Peña González, a malacologist from Lima and tutor of the second author. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

is a noun in the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

Distribution

The distribution of ''Scutalus mariopenai'' includes Peru. The type locality is Catzcal (09°54’43’S 077°49’40’W),

Ancash Region Ancash ( qu, Anqash; es, Áncash ) is a department and region in northern Peru. It is bordered by the departments of La Libertad on the north, Huánuco and Pasco on the east, Lima on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital i ...

, Peru. Type specimens are stored in the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

, Leiden, the Netherlands, and in the private collection of V. Mogollón Avila, Lima, Peru.

Description

''Scutalus mariopenai'' is characterized by the broadly expanded and callous lip, the fine, punctuate granulation, and the whitish-corneous ground colour, with four brown spiral bands on the last whorl.

The shell height is up to 41.1 mm, 1.65 times as long as wide, umbilicate and deeply perforated, conical, with slightly convex sides and solid. Ground colour is uniformly whitish-corneous, the upper

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral d ...

are lighter, with four spiral light chestnut-brown bands, a small one below the white-lined suture, two broader ones above and below the periphery (which in some specimens are faintly subdivided into two equally broad bands) and a fourth band encircling the umbilicus. The surface is lustreless, with growth striae and spiral lines of fine, punctuate granulation, starting shallowly on the postnepionic whorl, but becoming rapidly more conspicuous on the following and fading away inside the umbilicus. The

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called ...

is pit-reticulate. The shell has 6.3 whorls that are somewhat convex. The last whorl is saccate. The suture is impressed, somewhat crenulate, at the aperture ascending in front. The aperture is large, ovate, glossy white inside with the pattern visible in banded specimens. Apertural margins are converging. The aperture is 1.30 times as long as wide, 0.70 times the total height. The peristome is broadly expanded and backwardly reflexed, glossy whitish.

Columellar Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the ...

margin is straight, broadly expanded and merging into the rather thick parietal callus. The height of the shell is 36.7–41.1 mm. The width of the shell is 21.9–36.2 mm. The shell has 6–6.5 mm. Dimensions of the holotype are as follows: The height of the holotype is 41.1 mm. The width of the shell is 26.2 mm. The height of the aperture is 22.6 mm. The width of the aperture is 17.9 mm. The height of the last whorl is 29.6 mm. The shell has 6.3 whorls. Type material: apertural and abapertural views of two shells of ''Scutalus mariopenai'' showing its color variability: Scutalus mariopenai 2

Living animal is whitish- to pale-grey, with a dark-greyish band along the foot. Tentacles are dark-grey near the eye-tips, lighter at the base. This species is closely allied to ''

Scutalus ortizpuentei ''Scutalus'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Bulimulidae.Breure A. S. H. & Romero P. (2012). "Support and surprises: molecular phylogeny of the land snail superfamily Orthalicoi ...

'' Weyrauch, 1967 which was described from Dept.

Cajamarca Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...

, Río Chancay valley, between Chiclayo and Chota, 80 km north of Quinden (ca. 06°38’S 079°05’W) in Peru. It differs from this species by being smaller (41 vs. 48 mm shell height), having a smaller aperture, and the lip more broadly expanded. The faintly visible subdivision of the spiral bands around the periphery, visible in some specimens of ''Scutalus mariopenai'', resembles the more pronounced colour pattern in ''Scutalus ortizpuentei''. It may also be compared to ''

Scutalus cretaceus ''Scutalus'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Bulimulidae.Breure A. S. H. & Romero P. (2012). "Support and surprises: molecular phylogeny of the land snail superfamily Orthalicoi ...

'' (Pfeiffer, 1855) from which it differs by being less elongate, having a stronger sculpture on the last whorl, having the inside of the aperture whitish coloured; having the lip more broadly expanded.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-3.0 text from the reference. {{Taxonbar, from=Q7439552 Bulimulidae Gastropods described in 2010