Four species of the family Fasciolariidae (Gastropoda) from the North Atlantic seamounts

Four species of Fasciolariidae from the North Atlantic Seamounts around Great Meteor Bank are reported on, and a new species, Fusinus meteoris is described. One of the species is identified to Clathurella rugosissima Locard, 1897, which is here assigned to the genus Latirus. The larval development, as inferred from the morphology of the protoconch, is planktotrophic in Latirus rugosissimus, Fusinus amiantus and F. bocagei, but F. meteoris, which has a teleoconch morphology very similar to F. bocagei, has a paucispiral larval shell indicating direct development. Latirus rugosissimus appears to have a restricted range on the seamounts, where it is abundant, and this cannot be explained by a lack of ability for dispersal. Conversely, the direct developer Fusinus meteoris is found on Meteor, Hyères and Irving seamounts, separated by a distance of ca. 90 km and does not show any morphological differenciation.