Living species of Meiocardia, Glossidae, are reviewed on the basis of specimens stored in various museums and institutions, including the MUSORSTOM collection of Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. Six species, one of them new, are reported from the Indo-West Pacific. The type species, M. moltkiana (Gmelin, 1791), has been variously interpreted by authors, so we redescribe it and give a new diagnosis of the genus. Other species of Meiocardia are: M. sanguineomaculata (Dunker, 1882) (Philippines to Seychelles); M. vulgaris (Reeve, 1845) (China to Philippines); M. globosa sp. nov. (Eastern Indian Ocean to Taiwan and Philippines); M. samarangiae Bernard, Cai & Morton, 1993 (Japan); and M. hawaiana Dall, Bartsch & Rehder, 1938 (western Indian Ocean to Hawaii). Meiocardia lamarckii (Reeve, 1845) is synonymised with M. moltkiana. Meiocardia lamarckii of Japanese authors is not the same as M. lamarckii (Reeve), but is conspecific with M. hawaiana. Meiocardia samarangiae Bernard, Cai & Morton, 1993 is a replacement name for Isocardia tetragona Adams & Reeve, 1850 non Koch & Dunker, 1837. The genus Glossocardia, Trapezidae, is redescribed on the basis of the type-species, Glossocardia obesa (Reeve, 1843) (tropical West Pacific). It includes Glossocardia stoliczkana Prashad, 1932 (Philippines and New Caledonia) and the tropical western Atlantic G. agassizii (Dall, 1886), which was originally assigned to Meiocardia. There are no records of living or fossil species of Meiocardia from the western Atlantic or eastern Pacific. |