''Daphnella stiphra'' 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

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 ...

mollusk in the family

Raphitomidae Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". '' Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 3 ...

Description

The length of the shell attains 8.5 mm, its diameter 4 mm. (Original description) The shell is fragile, short and has a biconic shape. The brown

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 ...

consists of 4½

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 apical 1½ with close spiral lirae, punctate between, the rest latticed by the crossing of two sets of crowded oblique lirae. The whorls are convex with deep sutures. The four whorls in the spire are convex, roundly angled just below the centre; the sutures deep. The

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the 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. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

is tumid and contracted at the base. The aperture is obliquely oval. The (broken) outer lip is thin and simple. The inner lip is represented by a smooth, glazed area. The columella is straight and barely concave. 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 is ...

is short and open. The round and simple sinus is situated at the suture. Sculpture. In the concave space just below the suture are crowded very fine spirals, eight in the penultimate. Below a prominent thread which bounds this space are more distant and stouter lirae, two in the first whorl, three in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, and about forty in the body whorl. Axial threadlets concave forwards to the prominent spiral thread, and convex forwards thence to the suture, run in the body whorl over the base to the siphonal anal. Verco, J.C. 1909. ''Notes on South Australian marine Mollusca with descriptions of new species. Part XII; Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia v. 33'' (1909)

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off South Australia.

References

* Verco, J.C. 1909. ''Notes on South Australian marine Mollusca with descriptions of new species. Part XII.'' Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 33: 293–342 * Cotton, B.C. 1947. ''Australian Recent and Tertiary Turridae''. Adelaide : Field Naturalist's Section of the Royal Society of South Australia. Conchology Club Vol. 4 pp. 1-34.

External links

*
Hedley, C. 1922. A revision of the Australian Turridae. Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213-359, pls 42-56

OBIS Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database, Daphnella stiphra Verco, 1909
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daphnella Stiphra stiphra Gastropods described in 1909 Gastropods of Australia