Type Material

            Holotype: “Female holotype from Saline Valley, Inyo County, California, June 14, 1960, Station 18, B. Banta, deposited in CAS” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43).

            Measurements: “Females CP varying from 9.8-10.5 (mean 10.3); A/CP varying from 5.5-6.0 (mean 5.8); indistinct mesal tooth. Opercula 1.6-2.0 times wider than long (mean 1.9), opercular notches occupying 20-27% (mean 24) of opercular area (figs.176-177)” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43).

            Operculum Description: “Females distinguished by opercula about twice as wide as long with short, broad, anterior lobes, small opercular notches with distinctly undulate lateral margins and wide, bowed vulvular openings varying in position from posterior half of opercular notches to nearly end of opercula” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43).

Diagnosis: “Females of grracilidens, titschacki, and spissus also have undulate lateral margins on the opercular notches, but inyoanus has much shorter and broader anterior opercular lobes and the lateral margins of the opercular notches are much more distinctly undulate” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43).

Other Information: “Males unknown” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43). “The holotype female and 3 female paratypes are all from Saline Valley in Inyo County, California and were collected during May and June” (Muma & Brookhart, 1988, p. 43).