''Stomatia phymotis'', common name the swollen stomatella, 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 ...

Trochidae The Trochidae, common name top-snails or top-shells, are a family of various sized sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the subclass Vetigastropoda. This family is commonly known as the top-snails because in many species the shell resembles ...

, the top snails.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 7 mm and 35 mm. The lengthened, solid shell is ear-shaped. It has a scalar spire. The

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk ...

descends very deeply. The shell is lusterless, red, marked at the suture, keel and base with olive or brown articulated with white. The surface is very rough, with a strong double nodulous keel at the middle of the

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

, several nodose spiral riblets and threads below it, strongly. The shell is plicate or puckered below the sutures. The

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

is irregular-oval and nacreous inside. There is considerable variation in both form and color.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in 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 ...

, Central and East Indian Ocean, East India, Indo-Malaysia,

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, 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 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia) and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

References

* Gmelin, J.F. & Linnaeus, C. 1791. ''Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentis, synonymis, locis.'' Editio decima tertia aucta, reformata. Lipsiae : G.E. Beer. * Adams, A. 1850. ''An arrangement of Stomatellidae, including the characters of a new genus Cumingia, with some additional generic characters.'' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1850(18): 29–40, pl. 8 * Melvill, J.C. & Standen, R. 1901. ''The Mollusca of the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea, as evidenced mainly through the collections of Mr. F.W. Townsend, 1893–1900; with descriptions of new species''. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1901(ii): 327–460 pls xxi–xxiv * Allan, J. 1935. ''Australian shells: ear shells and wide-mouthed shells''. Australian Museum Magazine 5(9): 320–324, 5 figs * Cotton, B.C. 1945. ''Southern Australian Gastropoda. Part 1. Streptoneura''. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 69(1): 150–171 * Cotton, B.C. 1959. ''South Australian Mollusca. Archaeogastropoda''. Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia. Adelaide : South Australian Government Printer 449 pp * Maes, V.O. 1967. ''The littoral marine mollusks of Cocos-Keeling Islands (Indian Ocean).'' Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 119: 93–217 * * Sharabati, D. 1984. ''Red Sea Shells''. London : KPI Limited 128 pp. * Wells, F.E. & Bryce, C.W. 1988. ''Seashells of Western Australia''. Perth : Western Australian Museum 207 pp. * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods.'' Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Moolenbeek, R.G. 1995. ''Gastropods (Gastropoda)''. pp. 24–186 in Dance, S.P. (ed). Seashells of Eastern Arabia. Dubai : Motivate Publishing. * Higo, S., Callomon, P. & Goto, Y. 1999. ''Catalogue and Bibliography of the Marine Shell-bearing Mollusca of Japan''. Japan : Elle Scientific Publications 749 pp * Wilson, B. 2002. ''A Handbook to Australian Seashells on Seashores East to West and North to South''. Sydney : Reed New Holland 185 pp * Poppe G.T., Tagaro S.P. & Dekker H. (2006) ''The Seguenziidae, Chilodontidae, Trochidae, Calliostomatidae and Solariellidae of the Philippine Islands''. Visaya Supplement 2: 1–228. page(s): 102

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stomatia Phymotis phymotis Gastropods described in 1779