A New Record of Pisania (Jeannea) Gracilis (Sowerby) (Mollusca:Gastropoda) from India

Abstract

The genus Pisania belongs to the family Bucciniidae, order Neogastropoda, class Gastropoda and phylum Mollusca. In India only one species is represented under this genus, namely, Pisanea ignea (Gmelin) from the Bay of Bengal (Dance, 1992; Subba Rao, 2003; Suryo Rao et al., 2004). During our studies on the abundance and diversity of malacofauna of the Gulf of Kutchh, we came across one living specimen of Pisania (Jeannea) gracilis (Sowerby, 1859). The record of this species has significance from taxonomic point of view as it is recorded for the first time from India. Only one specimen of this gastropod species was collected from Dwaraka beach, Gujarat by the junior author on 17.04.2005 [ZSI Reg. No. M 27538 (Fig. 1)].