(Figures 11–12)
Fusus eucosmius Dall, 1889: 167 (pars; Barbados); non F. eucosmius Dall, 1889, = Aristofusus excavatus (G.B. Sowerby II,
1880), Recent, southeastern United States and Gulf of Mexico. Fusinus henikeri eucosmius: Rutsch, 1934: 77; non A. eucosmius (Dall, 1889). Fusinus eucosmius: Altena, 1975: 56, 57: Humfrey, 1975: 145, 155, 156, pl. 12, figs. 7, 7a; Sander & Lalli, 1982: 316; Díaz,
1995: 118; Pointier & Lamy, 1998: 130; Pisor, 2005: 61; non A. eucosmius (Dall, 1889). Heilprinia sp. Petuch, 1981: 1126, 1127, figs. 31, 32. Fusinus (Heilprinia) eucosmius: Okutani in Takeda & Okutani, 1983: 282, 283, figs. (pars); non Aristofusus eucosmius (Dall,
1889). Fusinus sp. K. & L. Sunderland, 1995a: 19, 2 figs. Fusinus benjamini Hadorn, 1997: 10 –15, figs. 1–7; Hadorn & Rogers, 2000: 12, 13, 43, 52, pl. 8, figs. 78, 79; Mallard, 2001:
12, 13, 15, fig. 27; Snyder, 2003: 49; Mallard & Robin, 2005: 11, pl. 15; Robin, 2008: 210, figs. 3; Massemin et al., 2009:
153–155, figs.; Petuch, 2013: 140; Mallard & Robin, 2017: 21, figs. 1, 2. Fusinus (Fusinus?) eucosmius: Macsotay & Campos Villarroel, 2001: 92, pl. 3, figs. 1, 4; non Fusus eucosmius Dall, 1889. Fusinus excavatus: Pisor & Poppe, 2008: 82 (Barbados); non Fusus excavatus G.B. Sowerby II, 1880. Fusinus sp. 1 Daccarett & Bossio, 2011: 100, 259, fig. 501. Aristofusus benjamini: Vermeij & Snyder, 2018: 66 (species included in new genus).
Types. Holotype: 167.0 mm, off west coast of Barbados, 195 m, MHNG 20836 (Hadorn, 1997: 10–15, figs. 1, 2). Paratypes: MHNG 20837 (1), SMF 311195 (1), USNM 880153 (1), AMNH 191434 (10), AMNH 245897 (1) and Hadorn collection (11), all from Barbados and Guyana (Hadorn & Rogers 2000: 12).
Material examined. French Guiana —1-dd, 129.0 mm, GUYANE sta. CP 4363, 06°58’N, 53°00’W, 197–200 m, 31 Jul 2014; 3-lv, 69.0, 146.5 and 171.6 mm (IM-2013-56483, IM-2013-56485 and IM-2013-56484), 2-lv, 129.6 and 148.9 mm, 1-dd, 134.4 mm, GUYANE sta. CP 4379, 06°33’N, 52°26’W, 130–131 m, 0 4 Aug 2014; 1- dd, 96.7 mm, GUYANE sta. CP 4394, 05°30’N, 50°56’W, 224–225 m, 0 7 Aug 2014; 1-dd, 108.6 mm, off Guyane, 70 m, ANSP 465684; 2-dd, 134.4 and 143.2 mm, off Guyane, 70–90 m, ANSP 465690. Barbados —3-dd, 31.7, 106.1 and 137.1 mm, off west coast, 185 m, crabbed in traps, ANSP 465685; 2-dd, 134.7 and 171.0 mm, off west coast, 100 m, ANSP 465687; 1-dd, 108.0 mm, off Queens Point, St. James, 150 m, LC; 1-dd, 133.8 mm, off west coast, 143.5 m, LC; 1-dd, 28.8 mm, Barbados, LC. Colombia —1-dd, 117.6 mm, off Cabo la Vela, Guajira Peninsula, LC. Venezuela —1-dd, 203.6 mm, off Cumaná, 200 m, LC; 1-dd, 114.8 mm, off Cumaná, LC; 1-dd, 170.5 mm, Golfo de Triste, 90 m, LC; 1-dd, 201.1 mm, Golfo de Triste, 120 m, LC. Trinidad and Tobago —1-lv, 116.7 mm, off Tobago, 91 m, LC; 2-dd, 184.3 and 218.6 mm, off Tobago, deep water, LC. Guyana —1-lv, 169.7 mm, off Georgetown, 61+ m, LC; 1-dd, 175.0 mm, trawled off Georgetown, 150–165 m, ANSP 465688; 1-dd, 144.7 mm, Berbice County, 60–80 m, LC; 3-dd, 176.0, 186.0 and 187.0 mm, trawled on muddy sand off Berbice County, 65–85 m, ANSP 465686; 2-dd, 151.0 and 159.0 mm, trawled off Berbice County, 50 m, ANSP 465689; 1- dd, 181.5 mm, Berbice County, 44 m, LC. Suriname —3-lv, 93.0, 113.5 and 123.4 mm, R/ V Oregon sta. 2337 off Paramaribo, “ 300–400 m ” [!], ANSP 465683; 3-dd, 68.2, 108.0 and 149.5 mm, off Paramaribo, “ 300–400 m ” [!], RC.
Remarks. Aristofusus benjamini was mistaken for Fusus eucosmius Dall, 1889, even by Dall himself, who reported F. eucosmius from Blake sta. 290 off Barbados in 73 fm (134 m). That error was maintained by several authors (see synonymy) until it was resolved by Hadorn (1997). Aristofusus eucosmius [= A. excavatus (G.B. Sowerby II, 1880)] lives only in the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States.
Aristofusus benjamini is represented in MNHN material by eight specimens, 69.0– 171.6 mm sl, from three stations, depths 130– 225 m. No specimens were contained in GREEN 0 collections, probably because that program did not sample deep enough. Hadorn and Rogers (2000) cited a depth range of 15–400 m for the species, the 15 m depth based on a paratype from Guyana (USNM 880153), but that depth seems much too shallow and we regard it as doubtful. Furthermore, Hadorn and Rogers cited no specimens from deeper than 195 m; the source of the 400 m maximum depth they reported may be lots we examined at ANSP and in the Rogers collection labeled “off Paramaribo, Suriname, R/V Oregon sta. 2337, 300– 400 m,” but that depth is incorrect. Oregon station 2337 was made with a trawl in 29 fm (53.1 m) off Paramaribo at 06°50’N, 55°23’W (Bullis & Thompson 1965: 73). The next greatest depth record (140 fm, = 256 m) was reported by K. and L. Sunderland (1995a) for a shell from off Cumaná, Venezuela. Except for the single 15 m record, all others occur within a range of 44 to 200 m. The greatest depth recorded for MNHN specimens is 225 m, within the range of previous reports.
Okutani in Takeda and Okutani (1983: 282) described and figured shells and radulae of specimens from Suriname as Fusinus eucosmius (auct., = A. benjamini) and F. closter (pars, = L. carvalhoriosi), but figure numbers were transposed; shells of F. closter (L. carvalhoriosi) were figured as F. eucosmius (A. benjamini) and vice versa. Figures of radulae agree with text descriptions for both species and seem to be correctly assigned.
Aristofusus benjamini seems to be common in deep waters off the Guianas, as indicated by material we examined and by other published records: French Guiana (Hadorn & Rogers 2000; Massemin et al. 2009), Suriname (Okutani in Takeda & Okutani 1983; Hadorn & Rogers 2000), Guyana (Hadorn 1997; Hadorn & Rogers 2000; Mallard 2001; Mallard & Robin 2017), and the Guayana region of Venezuela off the Orinoco Delta (Díaz 1995).
The species ranges southward to Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil (Conquiliologistas do Brasil website); northward through the Lesser Antilles to Trinidad and Tobago (Hadorn & Rogers 2000), St. Vincent and Barbados (Rutsch 1934; Sander & Lalli 1982; Hadorn 1997) and Guadeloupe (Mallard & Robin 2005, 2017; Robin 2008); and westward in the southern Caribbean Sea off Venezuela (K. & L. Sunderland 1995a; Macsotay & Campos Villarroel 2001) and Colombia to the Golfo de Uraba (Hadorn & Rogers 2000) at the border with Panamá. Macsotay and Campos Villarroel (2001: 92) also cited the species (as F. eucosmius) from Panamá.
A shell that Petuch (1981) figured as an undescribed species of Heilprinia Grabau, 1904 from R/V John Elliott Pillsbury sta. P-602 near Rosalind Bank northeast of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea is A. benjamini. However, station P-602 was made with a 41 foot trawl in depths of 412–457 m at 20°22.5'N, 87°11.5'W, just east of Bahía de la Ascensión and south of Cozumel, México; only fish were recorded in the catch (Staiger 1968). Although that cruise ventured as far south as the Bay Islands of Honduras, it passed no closer than about 500 km to Rosalind Bank, so the locality seems suspect.
Abbott (1974: 229) mistakenly classified Heilprinia (type species Fusus caloosaensis Heilprin, 1886, Pliocene, Florida) as a subgenus of Fusinus in which he included F. eucosmius, perhaps influencing Petuch (1981) and Okutani in Takeda and Okutani (1983) to associate A. benjamini with Heilprinia. However, resemblance between A. benjamini and Heilprinia is slight, and placements of the species there were unjustified.