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Genus Wairarapa n.gen.
Type species Wairarapa rebecca n.sp.
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This genus is proposed for shells superficially resembling Splendrillia but differing in protoconch, sub-sutural fold, and “stromboid notch”. Shell small with a depressed dome-shaped protoconch of 1 1/2 smooth glossy whorls, the tip large, flattened and eccentric. Ornament of broad, rounded folds extending downwards across the base and upwards on to the subsutural fold, though interrupted at the deeply concave shoulder; subsutural fold strikingly broad, rounded and swollen, but no other spiral sculpture present. Judged from the growth lines the posterior sinus is moderately deep, U-shaped, with its apex on the lower part of the shoulder, and there is no stromboid notch at the base of the outer lip. Parietal callus pad thick. Anterior canal moderately short, shallowly notched.
The peculiar sub-sutural fold is most nearly paralleled in the recent Central American Crassispira erebus Pilsbry and Lowe and in the Australian recent Melatoma dupliaris Hedley. C. erebus is a moderately large shell (holotype 24·2 mm.) with the nucleus typical of the genus, while M. dupliaris is small (8 mm.) comparable in size to Wairarapa and possessing a protoconch described by Hedley simply as two whorled. Judged from the type figures erebus and dupliaris are very similar to each other, except for the size, and for the fact that the anterior fasciole of erebus is somewhat more convex. Wairarapa differs from both in possessing a broader more depressed nucleus of fewer whorls, broader, more rounded axials and a more concave shoulder, and in lacking spiral sculpture.
Wairarapa rebecca n.sp. (Pl. 27, fig. 20.)
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Small, solid, narrowly ovate; spire 1 1/2 times the aperture plus canal. Ten broadly rounded axial folds on body whorl, tapering downwards, oblique, curving backwards on the lower part of the base. Other details described in the generic diagnosis above.
Height, 7.7 mm.; diameter, 3.4 mm.
Locality: N165/507, Bell's Creek, middle Tongaporutuan (Holotype and one paratype).
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The paratype of Wairarapa rebecca has the axials on successive whorls staggered, not in line as on the holotype, but this is probably due to damage during growth.
Pseudoinquisitor flemingi n.sp. (Pl. 27, fig. 19.)
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Shell elevated with spire 1 1/2 times the height of the aperture plus canal, but rather stout for this genus; canal constricted, rather long. Judged from the growth lines, posterior sinus moderately deep and U-shaped, occupying the whole of the shoulder below a strong sub-sutural keel. Nucleus worn on the type, but on paratypes consisting of 1 1/2 smooth elevated whorls followed by 1/4 whorl with weak flexuous axial ribs or varices concave to the left. Six post-nuclear whorls, regularly increasing, strongly angled at the middle, with a moderately broad, concave shoulder. Axials 9 on early whorls, 11 on body, slightly oblique, broad, high, rounded, extending from just above the peripheral angle across the base nearly to the neck. Spirals, on spire whorls, below angle, three broad low cords with narrow interspaces strongest on the axial ribs; on body whorl, 18 rather weak cords covering base and neck. Shoulder smooth.
Height, 16·3 mm.; diameter, 6·4 mm.
Locality: N165/507, Bell's Creek, middle Tongaporutuan.
Some paratypes have stronger spirals. This is fairly certainly not a true Pseudoinquisitor since not only is the nucleus discrepant, but also the whorl shape and general outline of the shell differ somewhat from those of the genotype, Pseudoinquisitor problematicus Powell. Moreover, the heavy sub-sutural keel shows that it does not belong in Integradrillia Powell or Vixinquisitor Powell.
A paucispiral protoconch with a few brephic axials on the latest portion seems to be characteristic of a number of closely related clavine shells, which also generally have the stromboid notch at the base of the outer lip either weak or absent—e.g., Integradrillia, Vixinquisitor both of Powell, Crassispira Swainson and its subgenus Crassispirella Bartsch and Rehder, Carinodrillia Dall probably Clathrodrillia Dall, and Compsodrillia Woodring. Of these Carinodrillia appears to be closest to Pseudoinquisitor flemingi n.sp., the chief difference apparently being the very much weaker spiral sculpture of the new species. Its nucleus, broad, smooth shoulder, and constricted anterior canal, on the other hand, are all paralleled in Carinodrillia.
The location of the species in Pseudoinquisitor is therefore provisional, but it is not desired to create a new genus or record a further foreign genus in New Zealand without more research into the matter.