Malarinia Haas 1961

Genus Malarinia Haas, 1961 (Fig. 10E, F) Malarinia Haas, 1961: 19. Tope species: Malarinia hova Haas, 1961, by original designation. Included species: Malarinia hova Haas, 1961 (Fig. 10E) and Malarinia calcoperculata Emberton, 1994 (Fig. 10F, see also Emberton & Pearce, 1999: 364, fig. 22). Remarks: We examined photographs of the type species of Malarinia (Madagascar, ~ 30 miles south of Moramanga, Chutes de la Mort, leg. E.S. Ross, 10 November 1959, FMNH 106701). Te strong sculpture on the last half whorl suggests that each rib represents a microtunnel, as in the genera Boucardicus and Anosocolus. So far, this genus has been placed in the family Diplommatinidae, which has no other known members in Madagascar or in the entire African continent (Egorov 2013). Tus, its position in the Boucardicinae is more likely, and it is here moved to Boucardicinae. Boucardicus menoi K. C. Emberton, Slapcinsky, C. A. Campbell, Rakotondrazafy, Andriamiarison & J. D. Emberton, 2010 and Boucardicus avo K. C. Emberton, Slapcinsky, C. A. Campbell, Rakotondrazafy, Andriamiarison & J. D. Emberton, 2010 are very similar to two known Malarinia species in shell shape and sculpture (Emberton et al. 2010). It is possible that they are wrongly assigned to Boucardicus and should instead belong to Malarinia. However, it might also mean that there is no clear morphological distinction between Malarinia and Boucardicus. Given that Malarinia is the older name, it has priority over Boucardicus, and the ~200 species of the later genus should be transferred to Malarinia. However, we do not formally synonymize Boucardicus with Malarinia here. Instead, a systematic revision of the extremely variable Boucardicus should propose a reasonable subdivision of that genus.