n and inside of outer lip of brown; spiral rows of tubercula on spire ||3||5-1/2||b||c ||II ||+||+||+|
|A. gibbosa- group||Shell spire large and tall; shell transparent and colorless, with thin walls; inner surfaces of spire whorls without radial lines; keel tall with truncate leading edge ||A. gibbosa||Spire moderately tilted relative to shell plane, with a broad conical shape; umbilicus large and very wide ||4||6||b||b ||II ||-?||+||+|
|A. meteori||Spire strongly tilted relative to shell plane, with a narrow conical shape; umbilicus small and narrow ||4||5-1/2 to 5-3/4||b||b ||II ||+||+||+|
*One species, Atlanta peresi, is not included in the table above because it is most probably not valid. It was described by Frontier (1966) from the western Indian Ocean off Madagascar. Although its adult shell morphology and opercular type were characterized by Frontier, its eye and radular morphologies are unknown. Unfortunately, no specimens from Frontier's collections have been found for further examination. Catherine Thiriot (pers. comm. to R. Seapy) had thought that Frontier's collections might have been deposited at the Observatoire Océanologique, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France; but her search for these collections proved futile. Richter (1974) concluded that there was substantial doubt that A. peresi was a valid species after his examination of the heteropods from the extensive collections of the Meteor Expedition in 1964-1965 to the northwestern Indian Ocean, including the Arabian Sea. In addition, examination of planktonic and benthic samples collected off western Australia (Seapy et al., 2003) did not record any specimens that could be identified as A. peresi. There have been no records of the species from the Pacific Ocean (Seapy, 1990a,b and 2008; Newman, 1990), although it was identified from the North Atlantic by Thiriot-Quiévreux (1968, 1970 and 1973). However, she subsequently concluded that the identifications were erroneous (R. Seapy, pers. comm.). The interested reader is referred to Richter and Seapy (1999: 640) for a further description and discussion of this problematic species.
Noteworthy changes have been made in recent years in the authorship, spelling of specific epithets, or replacement of a specific epithet (in the case of Atlanta brunnea). Seven of the species of Atlanta originally described by Souleyet (1852) from the Bonite Expedition of 1836/1837 have survived to the present. Souleyet included in his species descriptions only the vernacular names (e.g., 'Atlante de Gaudichaud' and 'Atlanta Gaudichaudii, nobis'). Unfortunately for Souleyet, J. E. Gray (1850) had earlier latinized Souleyet's names in an "Explanation of Plates" that was part of the third of a five volume (1842-1857) collection of illustrations copied by his wife, M. E. Gray from the then-existing literature, which included those from an Eydoux and Souleyet atlas of 1841? (for a more complete discussion, see the Preface in Janssen and Seapy, 2009). As a result, J. E. Gray formally became the author of all but one (A. gibbosa) of Souleyet's species. In addition, the spelling of three specific epithets changed and one epithet was replaced (A. brunnea for A. fusca). The seven affected species are:
- Atlanta brunnea Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta fusca Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta gaudichaudi Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta gaudichaudii Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta helicinoidea Gray. 1850 (= Atlanta helicinoides Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta inclinata Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta inclinata Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta inflata Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta inflata Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta lesueurii Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta lesueurii Souleyet, 1852)
- Atlanta rosea Gray, 1850 (= Atlanta rosea Souleyet, 1852)
de Vera, A., R. R. Seapy, and F. Hernandez. 2006. Heteropod molluscs from waters around the Selvagens Islands (Gastropoda: Carinarioidea). Vieraea 34: 33-43.
Eydoux, F. and L. F. A. Souleyet. 1841(?). Voyage autour du monde exécuté pendant les années 1836 et 1837 sur la corvette 'La Bonite', commandée par M. Vaillant, capitaine de vaisseau, publié par ordre du Gouvernement sous les auspice