by Emilio Garcia
This section of the Conch-Net's News of New Species is designed to keep its readers abreast of selected new species of marine mollusks published in conchological journals. At this time we have access to only a few of those journals but hope to expand coverage in the future. Only the more obvious characteristics and/or differences with similar species were extracted from the original descriptions, so we encourage readers to go to these descriptions if they want a more complete definition of the species.

For some species, a Comments Section has been added by the author of this column. It is intended to add information not found in the original description or to place it in a slightly different context.

Most professional malacologists agree that the publication of new species should be done in scientific journals strictly refereed by malacologists who are well acquainted with the family to which a new species belongs. The proliferation of non-valid new species in recent years is due to the fact that this rule has not been closely followed

The species described here as new are listed only as a source of information. A number of them may be considered only forms by some taxonomists and amateur collectors, including the editor of this section.... not only because there is a great degree of variability within a species in these families but, perhaps more importantly, because a number of the taxonomists in these popular families are amateur themselves, and some of these amateurs are not aware of the importance or procedures for doing the the necessary research, or do not have access to libraries or collections that should be studied before new species are published.

New Species Not Included:
a) Species under 5 mm, with the exception of American species of some popular families such as Triphoridae.
b) Benthic species that can be collected only by research vessels, except for a few major families such as Pleurotomariidae, Cypraeidae, Muricidae and Volutidae.