Raphitomidae

KEY WORDS In the present work we present a complex of species of the family Raphitomidae (Mollusca Gastropoda) comprising three entities: two have multispiral protoconchs, Raphitoma pupoides (Monterosato, 1884), the less known R. radula (Monterosato, 1884) and a new species with paucispiral protoconch.

The family Raphitomidae was recently elevated to family status by Bouchet et al. in 2011 from subfamily Raphitominae under superfamily Conoidea. Conoidea contains 300 genera with 4,000 registered species and with a probability to contain over 12,000 extant species Taxonomists have reorganized the diverse Raphitomid genera of Kermia–Pseudodaphnella complex with the help of sculpture and pattern and more recently with the support of molecular tools. Raphitomids are distributed in the tropical Indo-Pacific region in shallow water habitats. Because of their small size and difficulty in sampling especially while researching benthic samples, they are either overlooked as a distinct species or sometimes considered in general as molluscs while species lists are made. The presence of highly variable morphological characters has made it difficult to interpret right taxonomic features. We report family Raphitomidae for the first time from India from the Gulf of Mannar (GOM) represented by three species namely Pseudodaphnella aureotincta, P. barnardi and P. rubroguttata. The samples were segregated from benthic sediments collected from the GoM during the period 2014-2015. The length of P. aureotincta measured higher (3.19 mm) when compared to P. barnardi (2.42 mm) and P. rubrogutta (2.62 mm). P. rubrogutta is distinct from the other 2 species by the presence of non-plancotrophic protoconch morphology while the other species have plancotrophic shell morphology. The addition of 3 species under genus Pseudodaphnella under family Raphitomidae from the Indian waters has helped in the addition of molluscan diversity documented from the sub-continent.