Turris babylonia; re-evaluation of a species complex and description of Turris assyria, new species.

Turris babylonia (Linnaeus, 1758) is the designated type species of Turris, the nominate genus of the family Turridae. This species has unusual taxonomic significance, since the family Turridae is a large biodiverse group that has been highly problematic in its taxonomy. In this article, we address the identity of Turris babylonia: molecular data presented here and expanded elsewhere demonstrate that two distinctive varieties with divergent shell morphology, both conventionally assigned to Turris babylonia, are in fact different species. We describe one of the forms as Turris assyria, new species. Thus, specimens previously assigned to Turris babylonia now comprise at least two taxa, Turris babylonia and Turris assyria; it remains possible that each is a multi-species complex. Some of the numerous varieties and morphologically divergent forms in each complex may prove not to be conspecific with the two species, each precisely defined in this work by a specific barcode sequence.