Ponderia Houart 1986

Genus Ponderia Houart, 1986 TYPE SPECIES. — Typhis zealandica Hutton, 1873 by original designation. Pleistocene to Recent: New Zealand. COMMENTS ON THE SUBFAMILIAL PLACEMENT Subfamilial placement of the genus Ponderia Houart, 1986 has varied in the literature. D’Attilio & Hertz (1988) placed it in the subfamily Tripterotyphinae D’Attilio & Hertz, 1988, whereas Vokes (1996) preferred placement it in the subfamily Muricinae.More recently, Merle et al. (2011) included Ponderia in a basal muricid group (without subfamilial assignment) and excluded it from the typical Muricinae. Houart (2018) included five genera in the Tripterotyphinae: Cinclidotyphis DuShane, 1969, Prototyphis Ponder, 1972, Pterotyphis Jousseaume, 1880, Tripterotyphis Pilsbry & Lowe, 1932 and Ponderia. All these genera share trivarical morphology, but the construction of the anal tube in Cynclidotyphis and Pterotyphis differs from that of Prototyphis, Ponderia and Tripterotyphis. In Cynclidotyphis and Pterotyphis, the anal tube is built just below the suture probably not with P1, whereas in Prototyphis, Ponderia and Tripterotyphis it is clearly built with P1. Tripterotyphis also differs from Ponderia and Prototyphis in having more strongly developed spiral sculpture. Thus, this group of five genera is likely to be polyphyletic. In their molecular phylogenetic work, Russini et al. (2023) confirm this hypothesis showing that: 1) Tripterotyphis belongs to a clade containing Muricopsis; and 2) Ponderia may represent a plesiomorphic lineage at the base of the pagodulinehaustrine diversification. Thus, those authors (p. 866) placed Ponderia in incertae sedis, and considered it likely to represent an independent lineage worthy of subfamilial rank.