Pteriidae

Family PTERIIDAE savignyi, Maleagrina (misspelling for Meleagrina) [Pinctada imbricata radiata (Leach, 1814)] (Figures 36I, J) 1884h: 7 [XXXI: 663]—available name Type material. MCZR –M–13835 — 2 v sn “ Meleagrina! Alessandria Mr. Juba de Lhotellerie”// 1 v sn + 1 v dx “ Meleagrina Savignyi M. Alessandria (Gaudion) ”, “ Meleagrina Alessandria. M. Savignyi Monts con l’animale assieme all’ Ostrea subimbricata Monts. ms. (Cap. Gaudion) avuta anche da Lothellerie e da Conemenos”. Type locality. Described from Alexandria (Egypt). Remarks. The first introduction of the name (Monterosato, 1884h: 7) was by a reference to a drawing in the plates of Egyptian molluscs by J.-C. Savigny. It is arguably the oldest record of this Indo–Pacific alien species in the Mediterranean Sea. It has been suggested that it had inhabited the waters of Alexandria harbour before the opening of the Suez Canal (Ghisotti, 1974: 7), although different hypotheses were proposed for its introduction in the Mediterranean (e.g. Por, 1978: 30, 31, 34). The exceptional proliferation of this mollusc brought Monterosato to reject the Indo–Pacific origin for this species, its abundance in the Gulf of Gabès allegedly proving it as a native undescribed species (see Monterosato, 1900: 393), but this is not tenable. It is currently included in Pinctada imbricata Röding, 1798, which is probably a complex of species. Recorded by MolluscaBase (2018) as a synonym of Pinctada imbricata radiata (Leach, 1814).Published as part of Appolloni, Massimo, Smriglio, Carlo, Amati, Bruno, Lugliè, Lorenzo, Nofroni, Italo, Tringali, Lionello P., Mariottini, Paolo & Oliverio, Marco, 2018, Catalogue of the primary types of marine molluscan taxa described by Tommaso Allery Di Maria, Marquis of Monterosato, deposited in the Museo Civico di Zoologia, Roma, pp. 1-138 in Zootaxa 4477 (1) on page 81, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4477.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/145465