Haliotidae Rafinesque 1815

FAMILY: HALIOTIDAE Rafinesque, 1815 Haliotis Linnaeus, 1758. Type species (s.d. Montfort 1810): Haliotis asinina Linnaeus, 1758. Following Geiger & Owen (2012) I have not assigned the South African Haliotis species to subgenera, due to the lack of a robust phylogenetic framework upon which to base subdivision of the genus. Surprisingly, given the morphological diversity evident, the five species comprising the largely endemic South African radiation cluster as a monophyletic lineage in molecular analyses (Bester-van der Merwe et al. 2012). If further research with a broader sampling of taxa confirms this, then two names are available for this group, Padollus Montfort, 1910 [type species (o.d.): Padollus rubicundus Montfort, 1810 (non Röding, 1798) = Haliotis parva] and Euhaliotis Wenz, 1938 [type species (o.d.): Haliotis midae]. Since Padollus is the older name, it has priority over Euhaliotis. H. pustulata may be referable to Sulculus H. Adams & A. Adams, 1854, whereas the affinity of H. unilateralis is uncertain.Published as part of Herbert, David G., 2015, An annotated catalogue and bibliography of the taxonomy, synonymy and distribution of the Recent Vetigastropoda of South Africa (Mollusca), pp. 1-98 in Zootaxa 4049 (1) on page 14, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4049.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/24536