Cingula kuiperi Verduin, 1984, on the French mediterranean coast

In September 1984, one of the authors collected an unusually rich shell grit sample on a small beach on the peninsula of Antibes, S. France. This sample (c. 3 litres), which was gathered with great difficulty, in small portions, from between and under rocks in the shallow water of a rock pool, contained a wealth of very small gastropods of uncommonly fine quality. Species of the genus Cingula were abundantly represented. The most frequently occurring species was C. turriculata (Monterosato, 1884), of which we found at least 2000 specimens; in addition, C. amabilis (Locard, 1886), C. semistriata (Montagu, 1808), C. beniamina Monterosato, 1884, and C. simulans (Locard, 1886) were found in large numbers (e.g., some 200 C. amabilis). These species could all be identified easily with the help of Verduin’s recent paper (1984). One species, however, initially gave us problems, viz., a somewhat slender Cingula without spiral sculpture and umbilicus, with colour spots and a clean dark spot on the apex. Verduin’s practical table gave us the choice between C. maculata Monterosato, 1869, C. kuiperi Verduin, 1984, and C. alleryana (Aradas & Benoit, 1874). The first-mentioned species could easily be rejected because of its clearly different form as compared to that of the species in our material. This exhibits a colour pattern which is definitely different from that of C. alleryana. This colour pattern does, however, agree with that described for C. kuiperi, hitherto only known to occur along the coast of Algeria.