Harpa ligata y Harpa kawamurai versus Harpa major (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

Harpa major Röding, 1798 is distributed over an extensive area of the Indo-Pacific, between the East African coast and the Marquesas Islands. The peculiar characteristics of some of its populations (Hawaii, French Polynesia or Tuamotu, among others) are clearly different from the typical form described by Röding of the East Indies, presenting, in general, a smaller size and a more intense coloration. In the past, such forms have deserved their own taxonomic status: such is the case of Harpa ligata Menke, 1828 (sensu Sutor, 1877) and Harpa conoidalis Lamarck, 1822 (sensu Reeve, 1843). Similarly, Harpa kawamurai Habe in Habe & Kosuge, 1970 has also been considered synonymous with H. major, despite presenting certain peculiar characteristics. As an approximation to the study of some of these special populations, the height and diameter of H. kawamurai from the Philippines, Harpa sp. from Tinina Balut (Philippines) and a third from Hawaii identified as H. ligata (sensu Sutor, 1877) have been compared with a sample of H. major from the Taiwan Strait, obtaining statistically significant differences between the three samples and H. major. The use of the epithet conoidalis for the Hawaiian populations is inappropriate, since Reeve (1843) used it, in part, to name H. major specimens from Sri Lanka. The studied population of Tinina Balut is identified, although provisionally, as H. aff. ligata. Although the relationship between length and diameter is similar to that of H. ligata, the marked color differences and the geographical factor (the huge separation distance between the two populations) advise certain differences at the nomenclatural level. Finally, the taxonomic status of H. kawamurai is also ratified as a good species, characterized by clear shades and narrower ribs, low and separated, clearly different characteristics from H. major.