Phenatoma zealandica

Phenatoma zealandica, common name the New Zealand turrid, is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Borsoniidae.[1]

Phenatoma zealandica
Abapertural view of a shell of Phenatoma zealandica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Borsoniidae
Genus: Phenatoma
Species:
P. zealandica
Binomial name
Phenatoma zealandica
(E. A. Smith, 1877)
Synonyms[1]
  • Pleurotoma zealandica E. A. Smith, 1877
  • Drillia cheesemani Hutton, 1878

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 10 mm and 23 mm.

(Original description) The shell has a flesh-white color. The acuminate spire has a dark brown apex. The shell contains 10 whorls. The first two are polished, vitreous and convex. The others are rather convex, keeled above and flattened sloping downwards. The large body whorl is somewhat inflated and contracted towards the base. It contains about 12 strong furrows, longitudinally striated. The dark aperture is ample. The oblique columella is brownish, curved in the middle. The short siphonal canal is slightly curved.

This species is remarkable for the tabulated whorls, the tabulations being very strongly radiately striated, and sometimes furnished with a spiral liration, and the conspicuous sulcations encircling the body whorl. The slit in the lip is situated just below the broad furrow which grooves the upper part of the whorls.[2]

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to New Zealand.

References
  1. WoRMS (2009). Phenatoma zealandica (Smith E. A., 1877). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2009) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=434596 on 14 August 2011
  2. Smith, Edgar A. "XLIX.—Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidæ in the British Museum." Journal of Natural History 19.114 (1877): 488-501
  • "Phenatoma zealandica". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Bouchet P., Kantor Yu.I., Sysoev A. & Puillandre N. (2011) A new operational classification of the Conoidea. Journal of Molluscan Studies 77: 273-308.

Further reading


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