Mitrella albovittata [Gastropoda: Columbellidae]: range extension to Barbados

Mitrella albovittata Lopes, Coelho & Cardoso, 1965, was originally described from Bahia, Salvador, Itapuã (type locality), Alagoas, Maceió and Rio de Janeiro, Cabo Frio. These three localities are all situated on the east coast of Brasil. Recently, it was found in a dredge sample collected near Barbados, off Holetown, at a depth of about 100 m (WAGENAAR HUMMELINCK 1977: station 1442). This locality is situated more than 6000 km northwest of Maceió, the northernmost locality hitherto known. The shells from off Barbados (Figs. 52-54), now in ZMA, are empty and not quite fresh, and may have been washed down from shallower water. They are similar to the the type specimens as described and figured by LOPES et al. (1965) and figured by RIOS (1975: pl. 28 fig. 416). They differ only in having the oblique brown spiral lines that cover the shell, restricted to two zones, viz. one near the base of the whorls and therefore only visible on the last whorl, and one at the periphery of the whorls, also partially visible on the spire. This colour pattern resembles that of a specimen of M. lunata (Say, 1826), as figured in RIOS (1975: pl. 28 fig. 418). M. lunata however, has a stouter and larger shell, with more whorls (Fig. 55). It ranges from Massachusetts to Brasil.