Besla Explained

Besla is a small genus of miniature sea snails, pyramidellid gastropod mollusks in the family Pyramidellidae within the tribe Chrysallidini (sensu taxonomy by Bouchet & Roctroi, 2005).^[1]

Taxonomy

The synonymy of Parthenina (Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dolfus, 1883) with Besla (Doll & Bartsch, 1904) proposed by Micali et al., (2012) is debatable. The type species of Besla has a protoconch axis at 90° with that of teleoconch (Type A protoconch), whereas that of Parthenina is tilted at nearly 180° (Type C); therefore, these divergent characteristics suggest that Besla and Parthenina are unrelated and that their teleoconch sculpture may be convergent .^[2]

Life habits

Very little is known about the biology of the members of this genus. As is true of most members of the Pyramidellidae sensu lato, they are most likely to be ectoparasites.

Species

There are more than twenty known species within the genus Besla, these include:

• Besla alphonsi (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla annae (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla arenarum (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla articulata (Hedley, 1909)
• Besla augusti (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla bicinctella (Yokoyama, 1927)
• Besla canaensis (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla convexa (Carpenter, 1857) - type species as: Odostomia (Chrysallida) convexa
• Besla cossmanni (Hornung & Mermod, 1924)
• Besla danieli (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla dheeradiloki (Robba, Di Geronimo, Chaimanee, Negri & Sanfilippo, 2003)
• Besla excolpa (Bartsch, 1912)
• Besla gabriellae (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla gautieri (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla henriettae (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla insularis (Oliver, 1915)
• Besla joae (Saurin, 1961)
• † Besla lawsi (Grant-Mackie & Chapman-Smith, 1971)
• Besla mieuina (Saurin, 1959)
• † Besla otahua (Laws, 1950)
• Besla ranae (Saurin, 1961)
• Besla reamensis (Saurin, 1961)
• Besla revisa (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla rossiana (Laws, 1941)
• Besla subrugata (Powell, 1927)
• Besla tuytrieuensis (Saurin, 1959)
• Besla vaga (Laws, 1941)
• Besla waitangiensis (Laws, 1941)

References

3. Dall W. H. & Bartsch P. (1904). Synopsis of the genera, subgenera and sections of the family Pyramidellidae. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 17: 1-16

Further reading

• Book: Carpenter , P. P. . Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells in the British Museum collected by Frederik Reigen . London . 1857 . 552 pp .

Notes and References

1. Gofas, S.; Bouchet, P. (2012). Besla Dall & Bartsch, 1904. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=571798 on 2012-08-27
2. Micali P., Nofroni I. & Perna E. (2012) Parthenina alesii n. sp. from Eastern Mediterranean, and notes on Parthenina dantarti (Peñas & Rolán in Peñas, Rolán & Ballesteros, 2008) (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Pyramidellidae). Bollettino Malacologico 48(1): 69-72.