''Haliotis diversicolor'', common name the variously coloured abalone, 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 ...

Haliotidae ''Haliotis'', common name abalone, is the only genus in the family Haliotidae. This genus once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of ''Haliotis''. The genus consists of small to very large, edible, ...

, the

abalone Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...

Subspecies

* ''Haliotis diversicolor diversicolor'' Reeve, 1846 * ''Haliotis diversicolor squamata'' Reeve, 1846 the scaly Australian abalone - synonyms: ''Haliotis elevata'' G.B. Sowerby II, 1882; ''Haliotis funebris'' Reeve, 1846; ''Haliotis squamata'' Reeve, 1846

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 85 mm.

Distribution

This species occurs in temperate northwestern Pacific Ocean off Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam Bạch Long Vĩ, Cô Tô,

Hạ Long Bay Hạ Long Bay or Halong Bay (, ) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The name Hạ Long means "descending dragon". Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long city, Cẩm Phả c ...

; off Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

), and in Indonesian waters (

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

) and off

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 ...

. The shell from these last two sites differ somewhat from the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

by being a bit more elongate and having a dark sepia color.Geiger, D. L. 1998. Recent genera and species of the family Haliotidae (Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda). The Nautilus 111: 85–116.

References

* Reeve, L.A. 1846. ''Descriptions of forty species of Haliotis, from the collection of H. Cumming, Esq.'' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 14: 53–59 * Geiger D.L. & Poppe G.T. (2000). ''A Conchological Iconography: The family Haliotidae.'' Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany. 135pp 83pls. * Geiger D.L. & Owen B. (2012) ''Abalone: Worldwide Haliotidae''. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. viii + 361 pp.

External links

* {{Authority control diversicolor Gastropods described in 1846 Marine gastropods Taxa named by Lovell Augustus Reeve