Alvania hirta (Monterosato, 1884)
Western and central Mediterranean. Shallow water to at least circalittoral. Grazer and detritus feeder. Dautzeberg & Fischer give a depth of 1385m from the Azores, in “Draguages effectués par l’Hirondelle et la Pincesse Alice”, Mémoires de la Société zoologique de France vol. IX, Paris 1896, Page 456.

Original taxon: Acinopsis hirta.
50m deep, on bottom with coral debris, Scilla, Messina Strait, SW. Italy. 3mm.
« Mettà più piccola della precedente [cancellata], più elevata, anfratti più scalati, ultimo anfratto meno ampio in proporzione. Si distingue pei 2 cingoli nel penultimo anfratto – nell’A. cancellata essendo costantemente 3. Colore: latteo. » – T. A. di Monterosato: “Conchiglie littorali mediterranee”, Il Naturalista Siciliano anno 3, Palermo 1883-1884, page 162. This description is also given in Nomenclatura generica e specifica di alcune conchiglie mediterranee, Palermo 1884.
 
In fact, the differential diagnosis given by Monterosato does not seem very reliable. The main differences between hirta and cancellata may be provided more by: the protoconch, paucispiral in hirta, multispiral in cancellata; the subsutural ramp, which is more markedly horizontal in cancellata because of the stronger spines of the adapical row; and on the whole, the intersections in hirta seem less pointed than in cancellata, probably because the longitudinal and spiral ridges are less sharp in hirta than in the latter.

36m deep, San Giovanni Li Cuti, Catania, E. Sicily. 3,5mm.
Intertidal grit, Buġibba, San Pawl il-Baħar, N. Malta.

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