Epidendrium billeeanum
(DuShane & Bratcher, 1965)
Description:
Dimensions range from 5 mm - 25 mm high and 3.04 mm - 9.09 mm wide.
Width to height ratio: 0.61:1 ~ 0.36:1
Shell: trochiform, broad conical; thin and fragile; minute to moderately small. Exterior colour white. About 11 whorls; protoconch with 3-4 whorls smooth, glassy, rapidly enlarging; teleoconch with 6-7 whorls strongly convex. Umbilicate: narrow, partially covered by columella. Approximately 25 - 49 costae on the body whorl. Costae are orthocline, low, regularly placed, lamellar, sometimes curved. Costae sometimes touching the adjoining whorls; discontinuous. Intercostal spaces regularly placed, relatively thick, spiral threads crossing axial lines creating cancellate sculpture. Columella partially deflected. . Periostracum thin, pale, brownish to yellowish.
Distribution:
Mexico [Gulf of California] - Panama, Galapagos [DuShane, 1974:9]; Clipperton Island [Kaiser, 2007:32]
Habitat:
2-14m. Lives in association with Tubastrea tenuilamellosa (Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848), coral host Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1863 [Kaiser, 2007:32], feeds on the red coral Tubastrea aurea (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) [DuShane, 1985:69]
Etymology:
Named for Billee Dilworth who was the first to find the species, with eggs, living on its coral host.
Type Material:
Holotype: GAS[GTC] 12729 [Scalina billeeana] for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: Scalina billeeana: Southwest end of Cerralvo Island, Gulf of California, Mexico; lat. 24°09'N; long. 109°55' W. [DuShane, H., 1974]
Holotype: California Academy of Science Geology Type Collection No. 12729. Paratypes will be distributed to the United States National Museum, the British Museum (Natural History), the American Museum of Natural History, the Conchological Collection of Stanford University, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (No. 22208), and the Los Angeles County Mu-seum. The remaining paratypes are in the collections of Twila Bratcher, Billee Dilworth, Norman Currin, and Helen DuShane. The largest paratype is 14.07 mm in height and 9.09 mm in diameter; the smallest is 5 mm in height and 3.04mm in diameter. for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: Southwest end of Cerralvo Island, Gulf of California, Mexico, Latitude 24° 09' North, Longitude 109° 55' West, under rocky ledges in depths of eight to ten feet. [DuShane, H.; Bratcher, T., 1965]
holotype CAS 63823/1sh, BMNH paratype/1sh, RMNH 100427/8sn+e. for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: MEXICO. Gulf of California, SW Cerralvo Island. (hosted by Tubastrea tenuilamellosa). [Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E., 2005]
Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E. (2005). pp: 154. Plate 56.
56, E. billeeanum, holotype, Gulf of
California, USA.
Distribution
as listed in source literature
DuShane, H.; Bratcher, T. (1965).
Plate 24. Fig. 1.
Figure 1: ventral view of holotype, CASGTC, no. 12729 (× 9).
pp: 161.
Original description
pp: 161.
Original description
DuShane, H. (1974).
pp: 14. Fig. 13.
Figure 13: Epitonium (Asperiscala) billeeanum (DuShane & Brat-cher, 1965). Holotype, CAS[GTC] 12729; length 7mm; width, 4 mm; ventral view
Xg
pp: 14. Fig. 15.
Figure 15: Epitonium (Asperiscala) billeeanum (DuShane & Brat-cher, 1965) . Same shell as in Figure 13, dorsal view
Xg
pp: 9.
Original description
Kaicher, S.D. (1983).
Card #: EP3-3650.
Card #: EP3-3650
Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E. (2005).
pp: 154. Plate 56.
56, E. billeeanum, holotype, Gulf of
California, USA.
Kaiser, K. L. (2007).
pp: 107. Plate 18. Fig. 2a.
Île Clipperton, (10°17'29"N, 109°13'32"W), S end landing site, live, on Tubastrea sp. attached to coral slab, 15 m (50 ft), H2O 84°F, leg. K.L. Kaiser, diving from R/V Urracá, 4 May 1994. KLK Coll. 200644. Size: 10.6 mm.
Photographs by P. Sadeghian.
Nakayama, T. & Kazunori, H. (2016).
