Re: Umbraculum - how many species?

Dear Erwin,
The problem with lists, especially now with databases, is that they are too easy to prepare. Preparing a list of names from the literature does not mean they are valid or available. I have added Poppe's list below:

•Umbraculum bertinia F. P. Jousseaume, 1833 Japan
•Umbraculum chinesis Schumacher, 1817 Indo Pacific = sinicum
•Umbraculum mediterraneum J. B. Lamarck, 1819 Europe
•Umbraculum ovale P. P. Carpenter, 1856 West America
•Umbraculum plicatulum E. Von Martens, 1881 East America
•Umbraculum rushii W. H. Dall, 1889 America
•Umbraculum sinicum J. F. Gmelin, 1791 Indo Pacific
•Umbraculum umbraculum Lightfoot, 1786 Indo Pacific
•Umbraculum umbrella Martyn, Japan
•Umbraculum unguiculus Rang, 1827 Europe

All except the last one are either accepted synonyms of U. umbraculum or U. mediterraneum depending on whether they are from the Indo-West Pacific or the Atlantic.

Umbraculum unguiculus is based on - one fossil shell from Miocene of France. A Recent shell has been reported from Portugal (Hoeksema & Janssen (1984) Basteria, 48: 7-11) but there is no way of knowing if the fossil and the recent shell are the same. It was originally described as Spiricella unguiculus and there is no way of knowing if it is an Umbraculum.

One name missing from the list is
Umbraculum pulchrum Lin Guangyu, 1981 (Oceanologia & Limnologia Sinica, 12(3):286-290. There is no anatomical detail in the description to separate it from U. umbraculum.

So I am afraid I can't say how many species there are but I'm pretty sure there are no more than two. One lesson from the exercise is to realise that lists are meaningless unless they are attached to some information.

Cheers,
Bill Rudman.