Frontier, 1966
Shell moderately small (type specimen = 2.7 mm diameter), flat, colorless, and with a smooth surface. Spire small, of 3 and 1/2 whorls. Keel high, penetrating deep between the whorls in large individuals. Diameter of teleoconch whorls increase almost continuously and quite slowly, beginning in the third whorl; a feature not known from other atlantids. Operculum type b. Radula and eye types unknown.
Because Thiriot-Quiévreux (1968, 1970, 1973) and Vatova (1974) reported Atlanta peresi from the Mediterranean, we have included it here. Frontier (1966) described this species from the western Indian Ocean. However, no specimens from the 1964/1965 Meteor Expedition in the central northern Indian Ocean examined by Richter (1974) could be identified as this species. In addition, we are not aware of any records indicating its presence in the Pacific Ocean. Van der Spoel (1976) placed this species in the Atlanta lesueuri group because of the low number of whorls that make up the spire. Unlike Atlanta lesueuri and Atlanta oligogyra, however, the shell whorls of the teleoconch enlarge quite slowly and the keel inserts between the last shell whorls (as in most species in the Atlanta peroni species group). Since Atlanta peresi shares shell characters of both the Atlanta lesueuri and Atlanta peroni species groups, we have not placed it in either group. Not having specimens of Atlanta peresi available for examination, we have had to rely on the species description of Frontier, which is incomplete. Frontier did not name any type material or a type specimen, and the reports of this species by Thiriot-Quiévreux and Vatova from the Mediteranean Sea did not give a more thorough description.
See the family Atlantidae for a discussion of the species groups.