''Amalda allaryi'' 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 ...

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

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 ...

Ancillariidae The Ancillariidae is a taxonomic family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, ...

, the olives.

Description

The length of the shell attains 65 mm. The shell is ovate-fusiform with a cyrtoconoid

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

(approaching a cone in shape, but with convex sides). The primary spire callus is thick and weakly micro-shagreened, covering all

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 ...

s except for 1–1.5

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called " ...

whorls, making it impossible to count or measure the whorls accurately. The first protoconch whorl has a diameter of 0.84–1.02 mm (mean 0.92 mm, n = 3). The secondary callus is also thick, merging seamlessly with the parietal callus without a visible border, and extends to the anterpenultimate whorl. The plication plate features 2–3 ridges, with the lowest one being the weakest, and the

columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (, Arabic: ) was a prominent Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture and ancient Roman cuisin ...

is smooth. The olivoid groove is very shallow, almost indistinct, and the labral denticle is very small and obtuse. The upper anterior band is weakly convex, with the rear edge of the anterior plate distinctly thickened and raised above the surface of the upper anterior band, which is nearly flat. The lower anterior band is nearly flat and smooth. The shell color ranges from very pale creamy to ivory. The primary callus varies from light to dark orange or brown, with strongly prosocline (i.e. with the growth lines leaning forward (adapically) with respect to the direction of the cone) lighter axial lines. The secondary callus is orange in its upper part. The olivoid band is slightly lighter than 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 ...

cloak, while the upper anterior band matches the cloak's color, and the lower anterior band and plication plate are white. Yuri I. Kantor, Magalie Castelin, Alexander Fedosov, Philippe Bouchet (2020), ''The Indo-Pacific Amalda (Neogastropoda, Olivoidea, Ancillariidae) revisited with molecular data, with special emphasis on New Caledonia''; European Journal of Taxonomy, [S.l.], n. 706, aug. 2020. ISSN 2118-9773

Distribution

This marine species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to and occurs off

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

References

* Bozzetti L. (2007). Malacologia 56. Page 14–16 {{DEFAULTSORT:Amalda Allaryi allaryi Gastropods described in 2007