Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 67

Citation

Healy, J.M., Salvador, A. & Wilson, N.G. (2026). Re-evaluation of the status of type material for 18th and 19th century species of Melo (baler shells) (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Volutidae) and its bearing on current taxonomy in the genus. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 67: 25–53. https://doi.org/10.17082/mwjj9275

Accepted

2 March 2026

Published

1 June 2026

Peer reviewed

Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17082/mwjj9275

Keywords

marine gastropods, type designations, volutes, balers, systematics, taxonomic research

Abstract

Melo Broderip, 1826 (Mollusca: Volutidae) (baler shells) is a small but ecologically, economically and culturally important genus of large carnivorous marine gastropods from the Indo-West Pacific. Melo has long proved taxonomically challenging primarily due to heavy reliance on highly variable shell features. The status of type material for species described in the 18th and 19th centuries is here re-evaluated, both to promote nomenclatural stability and facilitate future taxonomic and phylogenetic work on the genus. Lectotypes are here designated for Voluta melo [Lightfoot], 1786, Voluta amphora [Lightfoot], 1786, Voluta aethiopica Linnaeus, 1758 and Voluta broderipii J.E. Gray in Griffith & Pidgeon, 1833. Voluta ducalis Lamarck, 1811 is shown to be an earlier name for the species currently known as Melo umbilicatus Broderip in G.B. Sowerby I, 1826 and will have to be formally confirmed a nomen oblitum through application to the ICZN Commission (Lamarck’s name only partly fails to meet the criteria of ICZN Article 23.9.1 (Reversal of precedence)). Specimens currently accepted as the holotypes of Melo umbilicatus Broderip in G.B. Sowerby I, 1826, Voluta georginae J.E. Gray in Griffith & Pidgeon, 1833 and Voluta miltonis J.E. Gray in Griffith & Pidgeon, 1833, and one of the syntypes of Voluta tessellata Lamarck, 1811, are here designated as the relevant lectotypes of those species. The name Voluta haustrum [Lightfoot], 1786, presently regarded as a synonym of Melo amphora ([Lightfoot], 1786), is shown instead to be an earlier name for M. tessellatus (Lamarck, 1811) but is here considered a nomen oblitum. The name Voluta anguria [Lightfoot, 1786], presently regarded as a synonym of Melo melo ([Lightfoot], 1786), is simply another name for Cymbium pepo ([Lightfoot], 1786), although preceding Voluta pepo [Lightfoot], 1786 in the Portland Catalogue. Apart from wrongful inclusion in the synonymy of M. melo by some previous authors, the name Voluta anguria appears to have been wholly neglected in later literature and is here regarded as a nomen oblitum.