The Family Volutidae
The Endemic Far East Asian Subfamily Fulgorariinae Pulsbry & Olsson, 1954
A Revision of the Recent Species
by P. Bail & M. Chino
2010, ConchBooks, paper wraps 4 hole loose-leaf punched, about 8¼ by 11¾ inches (21 by 30mm) 74 pages of intro. and text, 64 full page color plates and 31 b/w photo figures in text plus maps.
This revision and classification of the subfamily Fulgorariinae is an ambitious attempt to bring some sense of order to the shells that have proven to be very difficult to identify. The authors establish two Genera, Fulgoraria Schumacher ,1817 & Satomea, Habe,1943 and recognize 5 subgeneric classifications in former and 2 in the later. In all 31 species and subspecies are recognized as valid taxa. No new species are introduced in this publication. As always in these publications, the photos (by the authors and Y. Terryn) are superb and the text is brief but adequate to express the authors' intent. What is very useful are the figures found in the text showing the differences determined by the authors to separate these shells into their classification. It remains to be seen if this classification is followed in the future, but in the meanwhile it is a successful attempt to bring some order into the shells belonging to this varied and highly variable part of the Volutidae.
