Acirsa borealis
(Lyell, 1841)
Description:
Dimensions range from 9 mm - 60 mm high and 5 mm - 22 mm wide.
Width to height ratio: 0.56:1 ~ 0.37:1
Shell: attenuate, turreted, pyramidal; thin, fragile, chalky; small to medium. Exterior colour pale grey-fulvous, to brownish. About 13 whorls, convex; protoconch with ~2 whorls smooth; teleoconch with 8-11 whorls moderately convex, a little attenuated. Spire extended with angle of 24 - 28 degrees. Suture moderately to slightly impressed. Imperforate. Costae are low, weak almost absent on the body whorl. Costae discontinuous, do not cross the suture. Intercostal spaces with irregular, impressed spiral striae. Interstices with approximately 15 spiral striae per whorl. Base basal disk strong, elevated, encircled with an obtuse keel. Columella margin thickened and slightly reflexed. Aperture subcircular, ovate, lip simple; peristome incomplete; outer lip thin. Operculum chitinous, paucispiral. Periostracum appears to be deciduous.
Distribution:
Artic seas; In the Atlantic from Massachusetts north to Nova Scotia, and Greenland to Norway and Sweden. In the northern Pacific, Sea of Okhotsk and the Aleutian Islands, Alaska; Hokkaido to Boso Peninsula, Japan.
Habitat:
low water to 91.4m [50 fthms] [Weil et al., 1999:12]
Etymology:
[latin] borealis = northern or of the north in reference to the distribution of the species
Type Material:
Idiotype: Museum of Comparative Zodlogy no. 165598 from Massachusetts, collected by J. W. Mighels. Cotypes of **Scalaria borealis'' Beck, Museum of Comparative Zodlogy no. 187118, from Greenland, ex Museum Copenhagen. [as Acirsa costulata Mighels and Adams]. [Clench, W. J. & Turner, R. D., 1952]
Holotype: Scalaria borealis Lyell: Holotype from Uddevalla, Sweden, lost. Hypotypes MCZ no. 1871 18, from Greenland. Turritella costulata Mighels and Adams: Holotype from Massachusetts, lost (R. I. Johnson, 1949): Neotype MCZ no. 165598, from Georges Bank, Massachusetts. Scalaria ochotensis Middendorff: Holotype in Museum of St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia; from south coast of Sea of Okhotsk. for Acirsa borealis (Lyell, 1841). [DuShane, H., 1979]
Lectotype: S. eschrichti, lectotype, here selected, and 4 paralectotypes in Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen. [as Acirsa eschrichti (Holböll in Möller, 1842)]. [Bouchet, P. & Warén, A., 1986]
Idiotype: It is in the cabinet of J. W. Mighels. Mighels types were sold to the Portland [Maine] Society of Natural History in 1846 and lost in a catastrophic fire in 1854 (R.I. Johnson 1949: 214-215). An idiotype was provided by Mighels to the Boston Society of Natural History and is now in the MCZ, no. 165598 (Clench & Turner 1950a: 230). Clench & Turner's action does not constitute designation of a neotype according to Art. 75.3 (ICZN 1999). [as Turritella costulata Mighels & C.B. Adams, 1842:] - Locality: Casco Bay, Maine (lost holotype).. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]
Lectotype and four paralectotypes in ZMC, designated by Bouchet & Warén (1986: 528). [as Scalaria eschrichti Höllböll in Möller, 1842:] - Locality: Davis Strait, Greenland, as restricted by Bouchet & Warén (loc. cit.).. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]
Type not located. [as Scalaria undulata G.B. Sowerby II, 1844:] - Locality: none given.. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]
Lectotype: the specimen figured by Lyell (1835) pl. 2, ig. 11 is here selected as the lectotype (Figure 1). The depository of this specimen is unknown. Lyell's Figure 12 presumably is of the same specimen for Acirsa borealis (Lyell, 1841) - Locality: Restricted to Uddevalla, Sweden (fossil) by the lectotype designation. [Rosenberg, G, 2011]
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1844). Plate xxxv. Fig. 136.
Distribution
as listed in source literature
Lyell, C. (1835).
Plate 2. Fig. 11-12.
the species is figured but not named in Lyell (1835), but is nameed in Lyell, C. (1841). Remarks on some fossil and Recent shells, collected by Captain Bayfield, R.N., in Canada. Transactions of the Geological Society of London. (2)6(1) page 136
Lyell, C. (1841).
Plate II. Fig. 11, 12.
figures from Lyell, C. (1835). I. The Bakerian Lecture.
pp: 136.
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1844).
Shown in text as Scalaria undulata
Plate xxxv. Fig. 136.
pp: 104.
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1873-1874).
Shown in text as Scalaria undulata
Plate xiv. Fig. 108.
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1873-1874).
Shown in text as Scalaria escrichti
Plate xi. Fig. 83.
Tryon, G.W. (1887).
Shown in text as Scalaria costulata Mighels & C.B. Adams, 1842, Turritella eschrichti (Møller, 1842), Turritella hibernica E. Waller, 1857, Scalaria undulata G. B. Sowerby II, 1844
Plate 16. Fig. 12.
S. Eschrichti (Holb.), Möller (fig. 12)
Plate 16. Fig. 18.
S. undulata, Sowb. (fig. 18).
pp: 80.
Dall, W. H. (1889).
Shown in text as Turritella costulata Mighels & C. B. Adams, 1842 which Dall lists as Scala (Acirsa) costulata Mighels
pp: 307.
pp: 308.
Clessin, S. (1897).
Plate 18. Fig. 2.
pp: 868-69.
Shell thick, whitish, pyramidal, rather broad; whorls eight, bluntly keeled in front, almost straight-sided, and somewhat flattened below the keel; varices few, rounded, indistinct, unequal, irregular, some fading near the middle, and slightly nodular at the suture; aperture somewhat square, outer lip thick and rounded; columella nearly straight, somewhat wedge-shaped anteriorly.
Clessin, S. (1897).
Shown in text as Scalaria undulata G. B. Sowerby II, 1844
Plate 11. Fig. 6.
Clench, W. J. & Turner, R. D. (1952).
pp: 230. Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Scalaria borealis Beck, cotype (6x).
pp: 230. Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. From Georges Bank, off Massachusetts (6x).
Clench, W. J. & Turner, R. D. (1952).
Shown in text as Acirsa costulata Mighels and Adams
pp: 231. Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Acirsa costulata Mighels and Adams, idiotype (6x).
Kaicher, S. (1972).
Card #: EP1-2372.
Dushane, H. (1979).
pp: 99. Fig. 1.
Figure 1: Scalaria borealis Lyell, 1841. From Dall, 1921: pit. 13, fig. 10; length, 19mm; width, 6.5 mm X 2.9
Bouchet, P. & Warén, A. (1986).
Shown in text as Acirsa eschrichti (Holböll in Möller, 1842)
pp: 527. Fig. 1225.
1225, A. eschrichti, Davis Strait, lectotype, 20.1 mm.
pp: 474. Fig. 1115.
1115. Acirsa eschrichti, Greenland, 4.4 mm.
Nakayama, T. (2003).
Shown in text as Acirsa (Acirsa) costulata (Mighels & Adams, 1842)
pp: 103. Plate 1. Fig. 4.
Acirsa (Acirsa) costulata (Mighels & Adams, 1842) height 9.0 mm; breadth 4.0 mm (WC)
Rosenberg, G (2011).
