HERMINESPINA - NEW GENUS OF NEOGENE MURICID GASTROPOD FROM PERU AND CHILE

The new genus Herminespina comprises extinct South American species of ''Thais''-like ocenebrine gastropods with prominent colabral folds an d a labral spine. Geographic range extensions into Peru are reported f or the late Pliocene H. mirabilis and the late Miocene to Pliocene H. philippii, both previously known only from Chile. A new early Pliocene species, H. saskiae, is described from the Sacaco Basin of southern P eru and compared with an early Miocene muricid from Peru and Chile, Ac anthina katzi, Herminespina is one of several genera of Neogene murici ds in western South America that bear labral spines.