Theodor Anton Verkrüzen and his Whelks from Newfoundland

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All 35 Buccinum names, including 5 names indicated by a single character, described from Newfoundland by Theodor Anton Verkrüzen in the years 1878 to 1884 are discussed. Their original descriptions are translated from German to English. Type material of 24 of them is figured. In addition, shells connected to 14 manuscript names are figured. Part of the type material is preserved in the Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Senckenberg Forschungs­institut (SMF, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) and was already discussed by Kobelt (1883) and Zilch (1969). The whereabouts of the remaining type specimens remained unknown until the authors discovered them recently in the Natural History Museum (NHMUK, London, United Kingdom), where most of them were acquired in 1911 as part of the Museum Normanianum (Alfred Merle Norman, 1831-1918).

In the present paper, the authors figure these type specimens: the ones from SMF for the first time photographed in colour, the ones from NHMUK for the first time ever. They compare these species and forms with each other and with similar species, trying to ascertain their status. Their purpose is to improve the systematic knowledge and nomenclatural stability, hoping to reduce the chaos that hampers the systematics of the genus Buccinum. In particular, the identity and natural history of Buccinum inex­haustum Verkrüzen, 1881 is investigated, a lectotype is selected and the taxon is compared to other species and to interpretations thereof by subsequent authors. They place B. meridionale Verkrüzen, 1884 in synonymy with B. inexhaustum instead of with B. undatum. Furthermore, they confirm B. gouldii Verrill, 1882 being a junior synonym of B. inexhaustum. The type material of B. variabile is found to be heterogeneous, therefore a lectotype is selected to clarify its identity in accordance with the original description, but no nomen novum is produced for this junior homonym. They confirm B. amaliae Verkrüzen, 1878 and B. conspicuum Verkrüzen, 1878 being synonyms of B. undatum Linnaeus, 1758. They confirm B. elegans Verkrüzen, 1878 being a synonym of B. terraenovae Beck in Mörch, 1867. In addition, they list the historical details that they could retrieve about Theodor Anton Verkrüzen’s life, to offer the reader a broader context.

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