Filiscala youngi

Description:

Dimensions range from 10.3 mm - 10.3 mm high and 5.9 mm wide.
Width to height ratio: 0.57:1 ~ 0.57:1

Shell: broadly acuminate; small. Exterior colour white. About 7 whorls, strongly convex; protoconch smooth, conical, missing in the holotype. Suture deep. Umbilicate: narrowly open but partly hidden by the reflexed columella. Approximately 26 - 31 costae on the body whorl. Costae are prosocline, thin, low, widely spaced which extend from the suture to the umbilicus. There is a single varix on each whorl. The varix is thickened. Costae costae with slight angles below the suture. Intercostal spaces with elevated spiral threads. Interstices with approximately 16 - 20 spiral striae per whorl. Base strongly rounded, without a basal cord. Columella reflexed. Aperture elliptical; peristome has slight ear-shaped expansion at the base.

As discussed by Kilbrun [1985], Amaea youngi resembles A. (F.) martinii (Wood, 1828), of the tropical Indo-Pacific, in miniature, but differs in the possession of minutely coronated ribs and strong spiral lirae below the suture as well as in the absence of interstitial spiral striae. A. (F.) grossicingulata (de Boury, 1913) from China has coarser sculpture (eg. 12 spiral lirae on the penultimate whorl instead of about 20) and lacks the subsutural coronations.

Distribution:

Known only from type location, Durban, South Africa [Kilburn, 1985:248]

Habitat:

shallow water [Kilburn, 1985:248]

Etymology:

The name honours the memory of the late Bernard J. Young, whose labours in sorting Durban harbour dredgings brought to light this and many other new or interesting species of Epitoniidae. [Kilburn, 1985]

Type Material:

Types: Holotype NM B6026/T2767, Durban Bay, shallow dredgings, leg. B. J. Young. Paratopotypes 1-3, NM B6027/T2768. [as Amaea (Filiscala) youngi Kilburn, 1985]. [Kilburn, R.N, 1985]
Holotype: NM B6026/T2767 for Filiscala youngi (Kilburn, 1985) - Locality: Durban Bay, South Africa, shallow water. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]