''Cystiscus pardus'' 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), ...

of very small

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 ...

micromollusk A micromollusc is a shelled mollusc which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine molluscs, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater molluscs also ...

from 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 ...

Cystiscidae Cystiscidae is a taxonomic family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks. Description The shell is minute to large, either white, uniformly colored, or patterned; the surface is smooth, sculptured, or axially costat ...

Description

The shell of ''C. pardus'' is translucent, and white. The shells have been observed to grow up to 1.55 mm long and 1 mm wide. They can be identified by their flat spire, smooth inner shell lip, and three ridged plaits on their columellar fold. The snail ''C. pardus'' has a bifurcated head and red eyes. The snail's foot has a cloudy patten of yellow and white. Its mantle is yellow with densely packed blue leopard spots which can be seen through the shell.

Distribution

This species occurs in marine reefs off the north west coast of

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. It has been observed at two stations near the coast of Kuomac.''Cystiscus pardus'' Boyer, 2003 in GBIF Secretariat (2021). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset accessed via GBIF.org on 2022-05-24. It lives from depths between 15 and 20 m.

References

Gastropods described in 2003 pardus {{Cystiscidae-stub