''Bullia vittata'', common name the ribbon bullia, 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 ...

Nassariidae The Nassariidae, Nassa mud snails (US), or dog whelks (UK) are a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized snails, mostly marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. These snails have rounded shells with a high spire, an oval ap ...

, the Nassa mud snails or dog whelks.Gofas, S. (2015). Bullia vittata (Linnaeus, 1767). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=554883 on 4 May 2016

Description

The shell size varies between 27 mm and 50 mm The elongated shell is conical, and slightly turreted. It is of a bluish or ashy white color. The

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 ...

is very pointed at its summit. It is composed of nine or ten slightly convex whorls, united by a shallow suture, and furnished at their upper part with very close small folds or granulations. These folds form a girdle, and crown the whorls, which are again ornamented throughout their whole length with transverse thin ridges, more strongly prominent towards the base. There appear, besides, upon 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 ...

, oblique striae of growth pretty apparent, and presenting sometimes the appearance of varices. One or two striae separate also the folds from the upper marginal edge. 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 oblong, slightly narrowed, dilated at its base, where it is terminated by a very deep and slightly oblique emargination. The interior of the aperture is of a brown fawn color. 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 ...

is white, thin and sharp. 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 white and rounded.Kiener (1840). General species and iconography of recent shells : comprising the Massena Museum, the collection of Lamarck, the collection of the Museum of Natural History, and the recent discoveries of travellers; Boston :W.D. Ticknor,1837
(described as ''Buccinum vittatum'')

Distribution

This species is found off

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

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

Allmon W.D., 1990 [12 December]. ''Review of the Bullia group (Gastropoda: Nassariidae) with comments on its evolution, biogeography, and phylogeny.'' Bulletins of American Paleontology 99(335): 179 pp., 15 pls.

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q13446509 Nassariidae Gastropods described in 1767 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus