Cadulus nerta n.sp.

Figs. 72–73

Type material

Holotype IBUFRJ 14314; Paratypes MNHN, 1 dd; MORG 41078, 1 dd. All specimens from the type locality.

Type locality

Espírito Santo, REVIZEE sta A 3, 18 º 58 ’ 53 ’’S, 37 º 51 ’06’’W, 247 m.

Distribution

Western Atlantic, Brazil: only know from type locality. Shells to 247m.

Etymology

nerta is a nordic goodness of nature.

Description

Shell small (to 3.0 mm long), glossy, translucent, inflated, regularly curved except by a slope in posterior end at ventral side. Maximum diameter close to center of shell. Ventral side regularly curved, contracted into short apical slope, dorsal side notably less curved with small bulge at maximum diameter. Dorsal view fusiform, constriction observed between the preapical callus and apex. Apex simple with dorsoventrally depressed section. Preapical callus thin, lumen oval dorsoventrally. Oral aperture very oblique, strongly laterally compressed.

Remarks

Cadulus nerta does not closely resemble any other Brazilian species of the genus. Compared with the North Atlantic Cadulus podagrinus Henderson, 1920, it is less inflated, smaller and has a more laterally compressed apertural section.