“Comitas onokeana vivens n.subsp. Fig. 171.
A common Turrid from 220 to 330 fathoms has proved to be very close to Comitas onokeana King from the Nukumaruan (Lower Pleistocene) beds at Lake Ferry, Southern Wairarapa. The only constant feature by which the living shell may be distinguished from the fossil is that it does not have any spirals developed on the shoulder. For that reason it is differentiated subspecifically from the fossil shell. Comitas onokeana vivens has 14 to 15 axials on the body whorl and 12 to 14 on the penultimate while onokeana onokeana has 13 to 16 on the body whorl and 10 to 13 on the penultimate.
This form appears to be on the line of fusiformis (Hutton), imperfecta King, and onokeana King. That a living shell should be most closely allied to a Nukumaruan fossil with no trace of the lineage in the richly fossiliferous Castlecliffian beds is at first difficult to explain. However, it seems most likely that no beds from comparable depths are represented in the Castlecliffian series. The present work gives some evidence that the Lake Ferry beds were laid clown in depths around 200 to 300 fathoms. All the Castlecliffian beds so far described apparently represent intertidal and continental shelf habitats. Similar gaps in the Castlecliffian occur for Iredalina and Ellicea which occur at Lake Ferry and are now recorded from the archibenthal.
Holotype (M. 9791) and paratypes in the Dominion Museum; paratypes in Canterbury Museum.
Height, 41.0 mm.; 13.2 mm.
Localities: C.I.E. Station 52, Chatham Rise, in 260 fathoms; Stations 6, 7, and 59, Chatham Rise, in 220, 280, and 290 fathoms respectively; C.I.E. Station 41, south-east of Pitt Island, in 330 fathoms; Portobello Alert Station 54-17, off east Otago in 260 to 350 fathoms.
The single specimen from C.I.E. Station 41 has very obliquely set axials on all whorls and much stronger and more widely spaced spirals on the body whorl. It may represent a new form but the apical whorls are missing and in all other respects it is close to vivens.
The radula (fig. 259) is of the "wish-bone" type with no centrals. On the radula characters as given by Powell (1942) the position of Comitas in the subfamily Turriculinae might be doubted but too little is known of Turrid dentition to do more than record the radulae of as many species as possible.”
(Dell, 1956: 131-132)
Comitas onokeana vivens is a subspecies of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Pseudomelatomidae, the turrids and allies.[1]
The length of the shell attains 48 mm, its diameter 16 mm.
This marine subspecies is endemic to New Zealand and occurs off North Island.
Comitas onokeana vivens is a subspecies of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Pseudomelatomidae, the turrids and allies.
