A new Neritopsidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neritopsina) from French Polynesia

Neritopsis richeri n. sp., the fourth Recent species of a group of “living fossil” molluscs, is described from the Austral Islands (French Polynesia). Most of the material was collected during the BENTHAUS cruise. This species differs from its congeners in teleoconch sculpture, which has 1 to 4 secondary cords in the interspaces between the primary cords. The spiral ribs are also weakly beaded. In addition, and in contrast to the common species N. radula (Linnaeus, 1758), N. richeri n. sp. has a multispiral protoconch that implies a planktotrophic larval development. Its relationship to N. aqabaensis Bandel, 2007 described from an immature specimen is difficult to assess, the sculpture of adults suspected to be N. aqabaensis being identical to that of N. radula. Neritopsis richeri n. sp. appears to be restricted to French Polynesia but possibly has been confused with N. radula in previous publications.