
NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 266 November 1980 Page 
PLEUROTOMARIA LUCAYA Bayer, 1965 
Robert H. Janowsky 
There is something about the shells which comprise the family Pleu- 
rotomariidae that can completely captivate even th 
of shell collectors. Perhaps it is because early rt revelvae 
collectors we learn and become immersed in the history and mythology 
surrounding the Emperor's Slit Shell" (Mikadotrochus hirasei Pils- 
bry, 1903), but more certainly it is the fantastic colors and beau- 
tiful shapes of these primitive snails that so appeal to us. All 
species of Pleurotomaria are found at great depths and are reported 
to live on the sheer sides of rock walls where they are almost in- 
possible to obtain by any conventional technique. 
My good friend John Lightbourne has had a great deal of success 
(and also a great deal of hard work) in collecting crabbed specimens 
of Pleurotomaria adansoniana in deep water off Bermuda in baited 
traps. Live-collected specimens are, from time to time, obtained 
in fish nets in deep water in various parts of the world, but these 
are probably fortuitous finds since the Pleurotomariidae are not 
bottom dwelling species. 
Although two new species of Pleurotomaria have been named in the 
past few months (one from Japan and one from the Philippines) I 
know of fewer than twenty described species. Nine of these species 
can be found in the western Atlantic. Most of these species are 
rather small in size and all are very rare in collections. The il- 
lustrated specimen is one of the smallest (approximately 29mm in 
diameter) and certainly one of the rarest and most attractive of 
the western Atlantic species. It is one of the few known specimens 
of Pleurotomaria (Pterotrochus) lucaya F. M. Bayer, 1965. This 
specimen was dredged at approximately 600 feet depth in the Straits 
of Florida. Bayer's type spec- 
imen was obtained at a depth 
of 366 meters off Lucaya, Grand 
Bahama Island. 
In a survey of the Pleurotoma- 
riidae in the Hawaiian Shell 
News XIX(8):10, Aug. 1971, the 
existence of only one specimen 
(the holotype) is reported. I 
know of no specimen in a pri- 
vate collection today other 
‘than the one here illustrated. 
This shell, like the holotype 
(which measures 28 x 32mm), is 
a pale tan with yellowish axial 
streaks. And, like the holo- 
type, has a slit that encom- 
passes the greater part of the 
1965 diameter of its body whorl. 
The illustrated specimen is in 
Straits of Florida... Aponeze. 29mm the collection of NYSC member 
CG. K. Duprey, of Nashville, 
Photograph by Robert H. Janowsky Tennesnes. 

Pleurotomaria lucaya Bayer, 

