''Alvania dijkstrai'' is a species of minute

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 ...

in the family

Rissoidae Rissoidae is a large family of sea snails. Members of the Rissoidae are very small in size and possess an operculum. Distribution and habitat Rissoidae are found worldwide. They live on sandy or gravel bottoms among algae or marine plants. Th ...

Description

It has an ovate shell, in height and in length with a thin outer

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

. Sometimes two rows of very vague, light brown dots are visible on the ultimate

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 ...

, one just subsutural and one on the shell base.

Distribution

It is endemic to the Selvagens Archipelago off Northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

References

External links

Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (eds), European Register of Marine Species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Patrimoines Naturels. 50: 180-213

Conchology.be: image
dijkstrai Gastropods described in 1998 {{Rissoidae-stub