Gari galatheae
Gari galatheae is a bivalve mollusc of the family Psammobiidae. First described as Kermadysmea galatheae by A. W. B. Powell in 1958 from specimens found in the Kermadec Islands, the species is known to live across the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the genus as below:
The holotype has a height of, length of, and a diameter of. The species has a maximum length of.
The species can be distinguished from other member of Gari due to being more elogated and solid, and due to the presence of lamellae of microscopic recurved riblets over the entire outer surface of both shell valves.
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1958 as the type species of a new genus, Kermadysmea, which he split from Gari due to morphological differences of the posterior cardinal. The holotype was collected in 1952 off the coast of Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands during the Danish Galathea, and is held by the Natural History Museum of Denmark. In 1969, Myra Keen recombined Kermadysmea as a subgenus of Gari, which was recombined again by Tadashige Habe in 1977 as a subgenus of Dysmea. Keen's placement was restored in 1993 by R. C. Willan, leading to the currently accepted scientific name, Gari galatheae.
Distribution and habitat
The species has a wide distribution, found across the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean in locations such as the Kermadec Islands, Réunion, the Philippines and the Ryukyu Islands. Specimens of the species tend to be found in coarse shell sand and gravel, predominantly from a depth ranging between.