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The conspicuous Mediterranean brittle star Ophioderma longicauda (Bruzelius, 1805) has been discovered to represent a cryptic species complex, consisting of six nuclear clusters with contrasting reproductive modes (broadcast spawners and brooders). Here, O. longicauda is re-described. It is distinguished by a dark reddish-brown colouration both dorsally and on the ventral disc, and multiple tumid dorsal arm plates. One eastern Mediterranean brooding cluster is described as O. zibrowii sp. nov., characterized by a dark olive-green colour both dorsally and on the ventral disc, and single dorsal arm plates. Another brooder is described from Tunisia as O. hybrida sp. nov., with a highly variable morphology that reflects its origin by hybridization of O. longicauda and a brooder (possibly O. zibrowii sp. nov.), leaving the third brooding cluster as morphologically indistinguishable at this point and possibly conspecific with one of the others. The West-African O. guineense Greef, 1882 is resurrected as a valid species, differing morphologically from O. longicauda by predominantly single dorsal arm plates and light green or creamy white ventral side. Also from West Africa, O. africana sp. nov. is described, characterized by a dark brown colour, dorsally and ventrally, and single dorsal arm plates.
Here, we report on 33 molluscan species from Miocene ’Calcari a Lucina’ hydrocarbon-seep deposits in northern Italy. Three new species are described: the chilodontaid gastropod Putzeysia diversii sp. nov., the lucinid bivalve Miltha (sensu lato) romaniae sp. nov., and Sisonia ultimoi sp. nov., a heterodont bivalve of uncertain taxonomic affinity. Fourteen species are described in open nomenclature. The common but enigmatic gastropod species Phasianema taurocrassa is here suggested to belong to the seguenzioid genus Cataegis. Most gastropod species are inhabitants of the deep-sea floor in general, and are not restricted (obligate) to sites of hydrocarbon-seepage. The gastropod Putzeysia diversii sp. nov. and the bivalve Sisonia ultimoi sp. nov. are the geologically oldest members of their genera known to date. While the genus Putzeysia is geographically restricted to the NE Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, Sisonia ultimoi sp. nov. represents another link of the Miocene Mediterranean seep fauna to that of the central Indo-West Pacific Ocean.
A new sepioline species, Sepiola boletzkyi sp. nov. (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae), is described based on two specimens from the Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). The type specimens are lodged in the Ege University Faculty of Fisheries Museum of Izmir (Turkey). The new species belongs to the Sepiola atlantica group sensu Naef, hence it is compared with the species in this group, namely Sepiola affinis, Sepiola atlantica, Sepiola bursadhaesa, Sepiola intermedia, Sepiola robusta, Sepiola rondeletii, Sepiola steenstrupiana and Sepiola tridens. The male of S. boletzkyi sp. nov. differs from all the others in having the combination of homomorphous ventral arm tips, eight enlarged suckers, subdivided into two groups, in the dorsal row of the distal part of the hectocotylus and a dorsal lobe complementing the copulatory apparatus. In females of S. boletzkyi sp. nov. the bursa copulatrix is large and, unlike all other species in the genus, has a large fungiform process towards the mantle wall. The discovery of S. boletzkyi sp. nov. increases to 12 the number of NE Atlantic- Mediterranean species of Sepiola.