Neptunea jewetti Mclean & Clark 2023, n. sp.

Neptunea jewetti n. sp.

Figures 17 F–G

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: D8DE791E-FE05-4AE9-9A87-F503B07F7E65

Type locality: SE side of Yunaska Island, Islands of Four Mountains (52°35.6 N, 170°38.24 W), 18 m. (AKMAP 2006 station: AKALE06-0037) (leg. Stephen C. Jewett, 17 July, 2006).

Type material: LACM 3587 (49.7 mm).

Description: Shell of moderate size (50 mm), pyriform, rather broad, whorls somewhat flattened above suture; suture weakly impressed; periostracum absent. protoconch small, about 1.4 mm in diameter, smooth, 1.5 whorls (partially obscured by a bryozoan in the holotype), 3.5 teleconch whorls. Axial and spiral sculpture lacking except for faint incremental growth lines; color uniformly dark brown. Aperture slightly more than half of shell height; Aperture large, oval; canal short, broad. Operculum notably smaller than aperture, nucleus terminal.

Radula: Rachidian tooth broadly rectangular, bearing five short, sharply pointed cusps, grading slightly from the outer to the central one. Lateral teeth tricuspid, outer cusp long, relatively thick, curved, central cusp considerably shorter, set close to inner cusp, inner cusp about as thick, but only ¾ as long as outer cusp, and only slightly curved at tip.

Remarks: Bears some resemblance Neptunea ventricosa (Gmelin, 1790), but is smaller, and has less inflated whorls, and shorter, broader canal. This species also bears some superficial resemblance to Volutopsius castaneus (Mörch, 1858), but is immediately distinguished by the proportions of the shell.

Etymology: The name honors biologist Dr. Stephen C. Jewett, University of Alaska, Fairbanks (retired), The AKMAP Survey co-leader, who collected the holotype.

Distribution: known so far only from the holotype, taken at 18 m, at Yunaska Island, Islands of Four Mountains.

Habitat: Holotype found on gravel in area of moderate to strong surge. Bottom temperature 4.4°C.