Document of bibliographic reference 329203

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Journal article

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AS

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Smaller molluscs from a multi-taxon survey (2012–2014) of the shallow marine environments of the tropical Kimberley region, Western Australia

Abstract

The marine environments of Western Australia’s Kimberley region (coast to continental edge) are rich in spatial diversity and vast in scale affording a broad range of habitats for marine fauna and flora. The macromolluscan (here defined as adult molluscs >10 mm) diversity of this large marine realm has been the subject of numerous surveys over the last 50 years. However, the smaller molluscs (here defined as adult molluscs <10 mm) have, for the most part, been ignored due to challenges in the collection and study of this assemblage. To begin to redress this imbalance a pilot project specifically designed to target smaller molluscs was undertaken over the final three years (2012–2014) of the survey component of the Woodside Collection Project (Kimberley) 2009–2014. Seventy-seven stations (of 179 surveyed) were sampled yielding 1,883 identified specimen lots representing 505 micromollusc species from ≤5 mm adult size class (following Geiger et al. 2007), 43 species from >5–10 mm adult size class, 68 species from >10 mm adult size class, which are likely to be juveniles of macromolluscs, as well as 8 species whose adult size could not be determined. This diversity spans 102 family or superfamily level taxa. Twenty-one of these familial level taxa were new to the survey area (see Bryce et al. 2018 for a full description of the Kimberley survey area) and the number of taxa recorded from a further 18 families was doubled. A considerable degree of species rarity characterised this fauna with almost 52% of all species being singletons. Less than 22% of taxa were recorded from three or more stations. A total of at least 26 new species, not yet formally described, as well as an additional 23 new records, for the survey area and/or Australia were discovered, yielding 49 new species-level records. Two formal taxonomic revisions are undertaken in this paper due to the acquisition of new material and a review of type material. Firstly, Haplocochlias minutissumus Pilsbry, 1921 is synonymised under Liotina parvissima Hedley, 1899 [as Lophocochlias parvissimus (Hedley, 1899)]. Secondly, the synonymy of Condylocuna io (Bernard, 1915) and Condylocuna tricosa Middelfart, 2002, is revoked. Many putative species require further study to determine their taxonomic status; several are probably new to science

Bibliographic citation

Middelfart, P.; Kirkendale, L.; Bryce, C. (2020). Smaller molluscs from a multi-taxon survey (2012–2014) of the shallow marine environments of the tropical Kimberley region, Western Australia. Rec. Aust. Mus. Suppl. Suppl. 85(1): 117. https://dx.doi.org/10.18195/issn.0313-122x.85.2020.117-183

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