Lepidochitona salvadorensis García-Ríos, 2006 Figures 2P, 14I–L, 15A–H Distribution. From Bahía Navachiste, Sinaloa, México to Los Cobanos and Playa La Unión, El Salvador (ReyesGómez 2016). Type specimens. Holotype ZSM Moll 20040210 (García-Ríos 2006). Type Locality. Los Cobanos, Sonsonate, El Salvador. Material examined. 20 specimens, maximum size 11.2 mm long, 5.9 mm wide. R (n=1); B (n=2); U (n=1); S (n=1); F (n=3); I (n=1); E (n=1); K (n=2); N (n=3); P (n=2); M (n=3). Habitat. This species was collected in surf areas in cracks of large rocks. The juveniles were found in shallow (3–6 m) depths on small rocks and shells, buried in sand or on rocks with crustose red or green algae. It was collected with Acanthochitona arragonites. Remarks. This species differs from the other members of the genus found within the same area by the position and number of spicules in the girdle tufts and the valve sculpturing. Lepidochitona salvadorensis bears tufts of 2–6 hyaline spicules located near the girdle base and microgranular sculpturing appearing without sculpture, in contrast with the sympatric L. beanii, that exhibits tufts of 3–4 spicules located at the valve sutures and with somewhat raised lateral areas. García-Ríos (2006) reported that the maximum body size observed for L. salvadorensis as 9.8 mm (specimen from Los Cobanos, La Unión, El Salvador). Our largest specimen (11.2 mm of body length) is from Parque de la Reina, Acapulco (e.g., UAGRO 0040). This species was first recorded from southern Mexican waters at Estacahuite, Puerto Ángel, Oaxaca (Reyes-Gómez et al. 2010) and at Bahía Navachiste, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Nayarit (ReyesGómez 2016). These reports suggest that L. salvadorensis may be distributed throughout the Mexican Tropical Pacific, however, more exploration is needed in the central Mexican Pacific (Michoacán, Colima) and elsewhere before it is considered to have a continuous distribution range between Guerrero and El Salvador.

Published as part of Reyes-Gómez, Adriana, Flores-Garza, Rafael, Galeana-Rebolledo, Lizeth, Hernández-Vera, Gerardo, Galván-Villa, Cristian M., Torreblanca-Ramírez, Carmina, Flores-Rodríguez, Pedro, García-Ibañez, Sergio & Ríos-Jara, Eduardo, 2022, Intertidal chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) from the rocky coastline of Guerrero, México, with the description of a new species, pp. 451-492 in Zootaxa 5155 (4) on page 473, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5155.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6691172