''Comitas rotundata'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family

Pseudomelatomidae Pseudomelatomidae is a family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropods included in the superfamily Conoidea (previously Conacea) and part of the Neogastropoda ( Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In 1995 Kantor elevated the subfamily Pseudomelatomina ...

, the turrids and allies.MolluscaBase (2018). Comitas breviplicata (E. A. Smith, 1899). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=433332 on 2018-06-06

Description

The white, slender shell has a fusiform shape, and an acuminate, turreted spire. It contains 10

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). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s. The

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called ...

is subglobose and smooth. The subsequent whorls are angulated in the middle, concave in the upper portion and contracted below. The plicae are delicate, oblique, about thirteen in number, and very short, commencing at the median angle and scarcely reaching the suture below. The aperture and the long

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 is ...

measure about ½ the total length. The outer lip is tenuous, widely sinuate and prominently arcuate in the middle, and near the suture slightly sinuate. The columella is smooth and almost upright. The narrow siphonal canal is slightly oblique. Melvill J.C. 1899. Notes on the Mollusca of the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, mostly dredged by Mr F. W. Townsend, with descriptions of twenty-seven species. ; The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. 4 , s. 7; London, 1899

Distribution

This marine species occurs off the Andamans.

References

E.A. Smith, Illustrations of the Zoology of H.M. Indian Marine Surveying Steamer Investigator. Part I: Mollusca (1897-1908)

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3722343 breviplicata Gastropods described in 1899