Veprecula is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Raphitomidae.
Description (Original description) This genus has been created by Melvill in 1917 for a series of deep-water species of Clathurella with several peculiarities.
The small, thin, delicate shell has a pale brown or white, fusiform spire, either very attenuate, or pagodiform, or broader, and ventricose, always much suturally impressed. The shell contains 10-12 whorls with 4-5 whorlsin the protoconch. The first of these is smooth, the second to the fourth or fifth are very finely longitudinally radially costulate. The remainder are either few or closely ribbed, crossed by frequent or more distant lirations, acutely echinate at the points of junction, interstices appearing deeply seated, almost smooth, quadrate or oblong. The aperture is oblong. The outer lip is thin. The sinus is deep and wide, situated immediately below the suture. The siphonal canal is produced and fusiform.Melvill J.C. (1917). A revision of the Turridae (Pleurotomidae) occurring in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and North Arabian Sea, as evidenced mostly through the results of dredgings carried out by Mr. F. W. Townsend, 1893–1914. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. 12(4): 140-186, pls 8-10
Species Species within the genus Veprecula include: † Veprecula adelaidensis A. W. B. Powell, 1944 Veprecula arethusa (Dall, 1918) Veprecula bandensis Sysoev, 1997 Veprecula brunonia (Dall, 1924) Veprecula cooperi Mestayer, 1919 Veprecula crystallina Stahlschmidt, Chino & Kilburn, 2012 Veprecula echinulata (Thiele, 1925) Veprecula gracilispira (Smith E. A., 1879) Veprecula hedleyi (Melvill, 1904) Veprecula pungens (Gould, 1860) Veprecula scala Hedley, 1922 Veprecula sculpta (Hinds, 1843) Veprecula spanionema (Melvill, 1917) Veprecula sykesii (Melvill & Standen, 1903) Veprecula tornipila McLean & Poorman, 1971 Veprecula vacillata Hedley, 1922 Veprecula vepratica (Hedley, 1903) Species brought into synonymy Veprecula menecharmes Melvill, 1923: synonym of Tritonoturris menecharmes (Melvill, 1923) Veprecula morra (Dall, 1881): synonym of Rimosodaphnella morra (Dall, 1881) Veprecula polyacantha Stahlschmidt, Chino & Kilburn, 2012: synonym of Famelica polyacantha (Stahlschmidt, Chino & Kilburn, 2012) (original combination) Veprecula reticulosa Smith, 1882: synonym of Veprecula arethusa (Dall, 1918) Veprecula togetoges Nomura & Niino, 1940: synonym of Veprecula arethusa (Dall, 1918)
References
Bouchet P., Kantor Yu.I., Sysoev A. & Puillandre N. (2011) A new operational classification of the Conoidea. Journal of Molluscan Studies 77: 273-308
External links
Worldwide Mollusc Species Data Base: Raphitomidae