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| Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii Bhosale, Thackeray, Raheem, Pawar & Khandekar, 2025 |
Abstract
We describe a new species of Lagocheilus from Ratoba Point, Tilari Nagar, Kolhapur District, in the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii n. sp. can be distinguished from its South Indian and Sri Lankan congeners by a unique combination of shell characters: a conoidal shell with a raised spire, a broad base, and narrow umbilicus; a wide aperture with a clearly expanded lip and a distinct angle where the lip joins the parietal wall; shell sculpture of prominent, widely spaced spiral lirae; and, in juvenile and young adults, a thick periostracum with numerous periostracal hairs. We also describe the living animal, operculum, radula and jaw. This is the first record of the genus Lagocheilus from the northern Western Ghats, extending its known distribution range by 540 km north into the Indian Peninsula.
Key words. Hairy land snail, Japonia, Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii n. sp., taxonomy, Western Ghats
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| Shell of South Indian and Sri Lankan Lagocheilus species. A–C, L. malleatus from the Beddome collection (NHMUK 1875. 03.06.22/1). D–F, L. shiplayi lectotype (NHMUK 20110216/1). G–I, L. shiplayi from the Barnacle collection (NHMUK 20110217/1). J–L, L. binoyae syntype (NHMUK 1958.1.14.26). M–O, L. occultus syntype (NHMUK 1958.1.14.29). P–R, L. vescus syntype (NHMUK 1958.1.14.13). S–U, Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii n. sp., holotype (NRC-AA-9576). A–R © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London. |
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| Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii n. sp. E, male, paratype NRC-AA-9601. F, female, paratype NRC-AA-9600. |
Lagocheilus hayaomiyazakii n. sp.
Diagnosis. The new species can be diagnosed from its South
Indian and Sri Lanka congeners by the following combination of shell characters: a conoidal shell with a raised spire,
broad base and narrow umbilicus; a wide aperture with a
clearly expanded lip and a distinct angle where the lip joins
the parietal wall; shell sculpture of prominent widely spaced
spiral lirae; and numerous hairs on the periostracum of juvenile and young adult shells.
Etymology. The specific epithet is a Latinised patronym honouring Hayao Miyazaki (b. 1941), a renowned Japanese animator, filmmaker, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli; the new species is named after him in recognition of his contribution to animation films. The suggested English common name is Tilari hairy snail.
Amrut Bhosale, Tejas Thackeray, Dinarzarde C. Raheem, Swapnil Pawar and Akshay Khandekar. 2025. First Record of the Genus Lagocheilus W.T. Blanford, 1864 (Caenogastropoda: Cyclophoridae) from the northern Western Ghats, India, with the description of L. hayaomiyazakii n. sp. Journal of Conchology. 45(4); DOI. 10.61733/jconch/4557 [14 October 2025]
