''Sistrum ricinus'', formerly known as ''Drupa ricinus'' and also called the prickly spotted drupe or the prickly Pacific drupe, 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 ...

Muricidae Muricidae is a large and varied taxonomic family of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks, commonly known as murex snails or rock snails. With over 1,700 living species, the Muricidae represent almost 10% of the Neog ...

Description

The shell size of ''Sistrum ricinus'' ranges between 19 mm and 32 mm. It has a beautiful shell that is solid and narrow, of a dirty white color with dark brown or black nodules. It lives in the lower eulittoral, under boulders and on reef crest, and feed on worms and mollusks. These marine snails feed on barnacles, bivalves, other snails; worms and mollusks. They hunt their food by using a radula to drill a hole in their shells prey.

''Taxonomy''

''Sistrum ricinus'' has a widespread distribution and a high degree of range overlap with several

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

. In the course of the 19th and 20th century, a total of 8 species and

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

were added, leaving us with a total of 12 valid taxa within the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

, these 12 taxa are divided into 3 subgenera.

Distribution and habitat

This species is

distributed Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific including the Galápagos Islands, Australia, Hawaii. They can be found on reef flats and rocks, above the tide lines of lagoons and inner reefs at a depth of 1-20m.

References

Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.MOL.132055 - Drupa ricinus ricinus (Linaeus, 1758) - Muricidae - Mollusc shell.jpeg, Drupa ricinus ricinus. Museum specimens. Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.MOL.132558 - Drupa ricinus lischkei (Hidalgo, 1904) - Muricidae - Mollusc shell.jpeg, Drupa ricinus lischkei. Museum specimens.

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q5309367

ricinus ''Ricinus communis'', the castor bean or castor oil plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus, ''Ricinus'', and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolution of c ...

Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus