Polystira

Polystira is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Turridae, the turrids.

Paul Bartsch (1934) states the genus Polystira was created by W. P. Woodring in 1928 for certain large West Indian turrids. He named the largest of the recent species, generally known as Pleurotoma albida Perry, as type. Unfortunately, the mollusk so designated is not Pleurotoma albida Perry, which Perry states " is frequently found at New Zealand and Lord Howe Island." Perry's figure 4, plate 32, of this species does not agree with the West Indian material. It clearly resembles certain shells from North Australia in the collection of the National Museum. The name is, therefore, not applicable to the West Indian shell, which will have to carry the next available designation. Lamarck in 1816, in his " Tableau Encyclopedique et Methodique ", figured on plate 439, as figure 2, the West Indian shell without naming it. Wood, in 1818, in his " Index Testaceologicus ", on page 125, names this species Murex virgo, referring to Lamarck's figure cited above. This appears to be the oldest available name for the type species. The type of Polystira Woodring must therefore be Murex virgo Wood = Polystira albida Woodring, not Perry.