''Cominella lineolata'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

the spotted cominella, 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), ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

sea snail, 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 ...

Cominellidae The Cominellidae are taxonomic family of large sea snails in the superfamily Buccinoidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Cominellidae Gray, 1857. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.ph ...

, .Marshall, B.; Bouchet, P.; Fraussen, K. (2015). Cominella lineolata (Lamarck, 1809). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=490925 on 2016-05-01

Description

The length of the shell varies between 20 mm and 39 mm. The smooth shell is spindle-shaped. 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 elongated and pointed. The

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water i ...

is short. The oval

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 pretty large. 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 marked throughout its whole extent by deep violet colored lines, crossed by white lines. 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, and of a bright yellow color, as well as the edge of the right lip. Externally, the ground color is of a greenish brown, banded with black. These transverse striae are definite and at regular distances; six or eight appear 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 ...

. The operculum is very small, unguiculated, pointed, and of a reddish brown.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 maculosum'')

Distribution

This marine species occurs off

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and Australia (

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 ...

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 ...

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

* Lamarck, J.B.P.A. de M. 1809. ''Philosophie zoologique.'' Paris : Dentu Vol. 1 xxv + 428 pp. * 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 alveolatum'') * Reeve, L.A. 1847. ''Monograph of the genus Buccinum''. pls 13-14 in Reeve, L.A. (ed). Conchologia Iconica. London : L. Reeve & Co. Vol. 3 * Pritchard, G.B. & Gatliff, J.H. 1898. ''Catalogue of the marine shells of Victoria. Part I''. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 10(2): 236-284 * Powell A W B, ''New Zealand Mollusca'', William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp * Donald, K.M, Winter, D.J., Ashcroft, A.L. & Spencer, H.G. (2015). Phylogeography of the whelk genus Cominella (Gastropoda: Buccinidae) suggests long-distance counter-current dispersal of a direct developer. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 115: 315-332

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q13474615 Cominellidae Gastropods of New Zealand Gastropods described in 1809