''Basilissopsis rhyssa'' 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 ...

Seguenziidae Seguenziidae is a family (biology), family of very small deepwater sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Seguenzioidea (according to the Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), taxonomy of the Gastr ...

Description

The height of the shell attains 2.1 mm. The shell is very similar to the shell of ''

Basilissopsis watsoni ''Basilissopsis watsoni'' is a species of sea snail in the family Seguenziidae. Description The height of the nacreous shell attains 2 mm. The shell has labral sinuses. Distribution This species occurs in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores ...

'' Dautzenberg & H. Fischer, 1897. The shell is

nacreous Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

and the 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 ...

possesses posterior and basal labral sinuses.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea off Cuba and in the Atlantic Ocean off

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

References

* Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. ''Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico'', pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

rhyssa ''Rhyssa'' is a genus of ichneumon wasps belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Rhyssinae. Etymology The Latin name of the genus comes from the Greek and means "wrinkled". Description Female of this parasitic species drills deep into ...

Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Gastropods described in 1927 Taxa named by William Healey Dall {{Seguenziidae-stub