On the identity of Casmaria species

Abbott (1968) in ‘Indo-Pacific Mollusca’ vol. 2, no. 9 treated the Cassidae. In the genus Casmaria he recognized only two species, among them he appointed several subspecies. Kreipl (1997) in his publication on the Recent Cassidae followed suit. Considerable confusion currently exists among experts if these subspecies should be ranked as subspecies, since they share the same geographic areas as the respective nominal species. Several of the named subspecies are to be regarded as species of full value, as will be elucidated hereafter. Until now the designation of Casmaria types is incomplete. We designate the lectotype of Cassis tenuilabris Menke, 1828; Cassis turgida Reeve, 1848; Cassis cernica Sowerby III, 1888 and of Cassis (Casmaria) turgida Reeve var. unicolor Pallary, 1926. We describe Casmaria kayae n. sp. from the Pacific and C. beui n. sp. from the Indian Ocean.