''Austrodrillia saxea'' 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 ...

Horaiclavidae Horaiclavidae is a family of predatory 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, taxonomi ...

. It was formerly included within the family

Turridae Turridae is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family name for a number of predatory sea snails, Marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.MolluscaBase (2018). Turridae H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 (1838). ...

, the turrids.

Description

The length of the shell attains 7 mm, its diameter 3 mm. The color of the shell shows an infrasutural spiral row of brown spots between the axial plicae, spirally elongate. On 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 ...

are three faint continuous spiral brown bands, and very faint curved axial bands. Verco, J.C. 1909. ''Notes on South Australian marine Mollusca with descriptions of new species. Part XII; Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia v. 33 (1909)''
/ref>

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 Australia and occurs off

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

References

Sowerby, G.B., III. (1896) ''List of the Pleurotomidae of South Australia, with descriptions of some new species.'' Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, 2, 24–32, pl. 3
* Hedley, C. 1922. ''A revision of the Australian Turridae''. Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213–359, pls 42–56 * May, W.L. 1923. ''An Illustrated Index of Tasmanian Shells: with 47 plates and 1052 species''. Hobart : Government Printer 100 pp. * Wells, F.E. 1990. ''Revision of the recent Australian Turridae referred to the genera Splendrillia and Austrodrillia.'' Journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia 11: 73–117 * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods.'' Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295
saxea Gastropods of Australia {{Horaiclavidae-stub