Species of the genus Gibberula Swainson, 1840 (Gastropoda: Cystiscidae) from Namibia
Abstract
The marine gastropod fauna off Namibia (SW Africa) has hardly been explored. The current study on species of the genus Gibberula Swainson, 1840 is part of an inventory of marine gastropods from Namibia. Four species are described as new, all endemic to Namibia: Gibberula oshishani sp. nov., G. evukule sp. nov., G. ehodhi sp. nov., and G. heyali sp. nov. One additional species was also known from South Africa: G. cf. bensoni (Reeve, 1865). None of the species known from Angola was found in Namibia. Apparently, the Kunene River delta forms a biogeographical dividing line for species of Gibberula (and many others).
References
Amorim K. & Zettler M.L. 2023. Gradients and instability: Macrozoobenthic communities in the Benguela Upwelling System off Namibia. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 291: e108421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2023.108421
Barnard K.H. 1959. Contributions to the knowledge of South African marine Mollusca. Part. II. Gastropoda: Prosobranchiata: Rhachiglossa. Annals of the South African Museum 45: 1–237.
Barnard K.H. 1962. A new genus in the family Marginellidae. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 35 (1): 14–15.
Boyer F. & Simbille C. 2025. Description de deux espèces nouvelles du Gabon dans le genre Gibberula Swainson, 1840 (Mollusca: Volutoidea: Cystiscidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 132 (1): 115–121. https://doi.org/10.35929/rsz.0144
Boyer F., Renda W. & Swinnen F. 2024a. Description de deux Gibberula nouvelles du Cameroun (Mollusca: Volutacea: Cystiscidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 131 (1): 139–143. https://doi.org/10.35929/rsz.0117
Boyer F., Renda W. & Swinnen F. 2024b. Revision of the cystiscid fauna (Neogastropoda Volutoidea) from Ascension and St. Helena Islands, Southern Atlantic. Biodiversity Journal 15 (4): 829–844. https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2024.15.4.829.844
Coovert G.A. & Coovert H.K. 1995. Revision of the supraspecific classification of the marginelliform Gastropods. The Nautilus 109: 43–110. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8274195 [accessed 18 Jun. 2026].
Cossignani V. 2006. Marginellidae and Cystiscidae of the World. Ancona. L’Informatore Piceno.
Cossignani T. & Lorenz F. 2020. Quattro nuove marginelle dal Sud Africa. Malacologia Mostra Mondiale 106: 12–16.
Fedosov A.E., Caballer Gutierrez M., Buge B., Sorokin P.V., Puillandre N. & Bouchet P. 2019. Mapping the missing branch on the neogastropod tree of life: molecular phylogeny of marginelliform gastropods. Journal of Molluscan Studies 85 (4): 439–451. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyz028
Gofas S. 1989. The Marginellidae of Angola: the genus Gibberula. Journal of Conchology 33 (3): 109–139. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.407941
John D.M. & Lawson G.W. 1991. Littoral ecosystems of tropical western Africa. In: Mathieson A.C. & Nienhuis P.H. (eds) Ecosystems of the World, Vol. 24: 297–321. London. New York, Tokyo.
Kensley B. 1973. Sea-Shells of Southern Africa. Gastropods. Maskew Miller Ltd., Cape Town.
Kilburn R.N. & Rippey E. 1982. Sea Shells of Southern Africa. Macmillan South Africa, Johannesburg.
Kirkman S.P. & Nsingi K.K. 2019. Marine biodiversity of Angola: Biogeography and conservation part 1 (3): 42–53. In: Huntley B.J., Russo V., Lage F. & Ferrand F. (eds) Biodiversity of Angola. Science & Conservation: A Modern Synthesis: 43–52. Springer Open, Cham, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03083-4_3
Lussi M. & Smith G. 1998. Family Cystiscidae Stimpson, 1865. Revision of the family Cystiscidae in South Africa with the introduction of three genera and the description of eight new species. Malacologia Mostra Mondiale 27: 3–23.
MolluscaBase 2026. MolluscaBase. Gibberula Swainson, 1840. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137881 [accessed 18 Jun. 2026].
Reeve L.A. 1864–1865. Monograph of the genus Marginella. In: Conchologia Iconica, or, Illustrations of the Shells of Molluscous Animals, vol. 15: pls 1–27 and unpaginated text. L. Reeve & Co., London [stated dates: pls 1, 14–27, January 1865; pls 2–13, August 1864]. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.8129
Sakko A.L. 1998. The influence of the Benguela upwelling system on Namibia’s marine biodiversity. Biodiversity and Conservation 7: 419–433. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008867310010
Swainson W. 1840. A Treatise on Malacology; or the Natural Classification of Shells and Shell-fish. Longman, London. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.8027
Van den Hoek C. 1975. Phytogeographic provinces along the coast of the northern Atlantic Ocean. Phycologia 14: 317–330. https://doi.org/10.2216/i0031-8884-14-4-317.1
Zettler M.L. & Hoffman L. 2025. Marine Bivalves of Namibia. Conchbooks, Harxheim, Germany.
Zettler M.L., Bochert R. & Pollehne F. 2013. Macrozoobenthic biodiversity patterns in the northern province of the Benguela upwelling system. African Journal of Marine Science 35 (2): 283–290. https://doi.org/10.2989/1814232X.2013.798592
Copyright (c) 2026 Leon Hoffman, Mayday Haulofu, Mildred J. Johnson, Michael L. Zettler

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Copyright Notices
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are NOT PERMITTED to post their submitted work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) prior to publication, as it may lead to nomenclatural issues.
