''Margovula marginata'', common name the Chinese egg shell, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Ovulidae Ovulidae, common names the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries, is a family (biology), family of small to large predatory or parasitic sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and the co ...

, the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries.

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 8 mm and 30 mm. The shell is rather thin, semitransparent, white, and encircled with an orange line at the margin. It is very obscurely decussated. Its interior is milkwhite. The length of the shell varies between 21 mm and 30 mm.

George Washington Tryon George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, Manual of Conchology VII, p. 246; 1885

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the

demersal zone The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer o ...

of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and in the Central Indo-West Pacific off the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

References

* Cate, C. N. 1973. ''A systematic revision of the recent Cypraeid family Ovulidae''. Veliger 15 (supplement): 1–117 * Lorenz F. & Fehse D. (2009) ''The living Ovulidae. A manual of the families of allied cowries: Ovulidae, Pediculariidae and Eocypraeidae''. Hackenheim: Conchbooks.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Margovula Marginata Ovulidae Gastropods described in 1828