''Eulithidium tessellatum'' 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 ...

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 ...

Phasianellidae Phasianellidae, with the common name "pheasant shells" or "pheasant snails", is a family of small sea snails with calcareous opercula, marine gastropod mollusks in the subclass Vetigastropoda Vetigastropoda is a major taxonomic group of s ...

Description

The shell size varies between 3 mm and 6 mm. The short and solid shell has an oval or ovate shape. 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 conic. The

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

is obtuse. The 4–5 smooth

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). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

s are slightly convex, and rapidly increasing. 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 ...

is large and obtusely angulate at the periphery. The sutures are lightly impressed. The oblique

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 ovat. Its outer and inner margins are equally curved. 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 ...

has a white callus. The umbilical region is excavated, and usually obviously perforated. The color of the shell is white, yellow or reddish, longitudinally clouded with white, red or brown. The color is sometimes broken into subsutural and peripheral series of flammules, ''encircled with close continuous narrow revolving obliquely descending, regularly spaced orange or red lines.'' This species and the '' Eulithidium affine'' (C. B. Adams, 1850) are very abundant in many West Indian localities. They are usually associated together. Fresh specimens of both exhibit microscopic revolving impressed striae.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
(described as ''Phasianella tessellata'')

Distribution

This species is distributed in abundant numbers in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

and the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

References

* Anton, H. E. 1838. ''Verzeichniss der Conchylien''. xvi + 110 pp * d'Orbigny, A. 1842. ''Mollusques. Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle de l'île de Cuba 2: 1–112, pls. 10–21''?. Arthus Bertrand: Paris * Adams, C. B. 1850. ''Descriptions of supposed new species of marine shells, which inhabit Jamaica''. Contributions to Conchology 4: 56–68. * Krebs, H. J. 1864. ''The West Indian Marine Shells.'' vi + 137 pp. W. Laubs widow & Chr. Jo/rgensen: Nykjo/bing, Falster. * Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. ''Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico'', Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q10759519 Phasianellidae Gastropods described in 1838