''Astralium stellare'', common name the blue-mouthed turban, 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 ...

Turbinidae Turbinidae, the turban snails, are a family of small to large marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Trochoidea.Bouchet, P. (2014). Turbinidae Rafinesque, 1815. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecie ...

, the turban snails.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 50 mm. The solid, imperforate shell has a conoid shape. It is more or less elevated. The 5-6

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 are obliquely radiately costate, imbricately spinose at the periphery. 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 ...

is carinated, carina with about ten long vaulted spines. The base of the shell contains about ten concentric squamose lirae. The white

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 oblique and is generally rosy margined, rarely bluish. 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 angulated.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
/ref> The white or green operculum is granulose outside. The animal has no lateral filaments. Astralium stellare 006

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the tropical Indo- West Pacific and off Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

)

References

* Gmelin J.F. 1791. Caroli a Linné. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Lipsiae : Georg. Emanuel. Beer Vermes. Vol. 1(Part 6) pp. 3021-3910. * Valenciennes, A. 1846. ''Mollusques''. pls 1–24 in Dupetit-Thouars, A.H. (ed.). Voyage autour du monde sur le frigat la Venus commande par Abel Dupetit-Thouars. Atlas de Zoologie, Mollusques. Paris : Gide. * Cotton, B.C. 1964. ''Molluscs of Arnhem Land. Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land'' 4 (Zoology): 9–43 * Cernohorsky, W.O. 1978. ''Tropical Pacific marine shells.'' Sydney : Pacific Publications 352 pp., 68 pls * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Williams, S.T. (2007). ''Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae).'' Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Astralium stellare stellare Gastropods described in 1791 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin