''Harpa articularis'', common name the articulate harp shell, 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 ...

Harpidae The Harpidae, known as the harp snails, are the members of a taxonomic family of large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. This family is temporarily classified in the superfamily Neogastropoda incertae sedis. MolluscaBase eds. (2 ...

, the harp snails.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 50 mm and 110 mm. The rather thin shell is ovate and ventricose. 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 conical, indistinctly muricated. The ribs are pretty narrow, distant and slightly flattened. They are marked by transverse brown lines, articulated and winding like light festoons. Between these lines appear white and violet spots. The interstices between the ribs are grayish. The longitudinal waved lines which are there seen, are strongly arched, and very contiguous to each other. They form species of transverse bands, at the origin of which exists a triangular brown chestnut-colored spot. The sharpest angle of this spot is continued sometimes into the interstices, in the middle of the narrow and white bands formed by the bars to the number of twelve upon 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 ...

. The brown bars are less conspicuous. The large

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 ovate, of a violet color upon the edge, and reddish within. Through these colors are perceived the transverse brown bands. 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 ...

is polished, covered over its whole length by a large brown chestnut-colored spot.Kiener (1840). General species and iconography of recent shells : comprising the Massena Museum, the collection of Lamarck, the collection of the Museum of Natural History, and the recent discoveries of travellers; Boston :W.D. Ticknor,1837
(described as ''Harpa articularis'')

Distribution

This species occurs in the Indian Ocean off the

Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their na ...

Basin to the West Pacific, as far as

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

; also 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 ...

)

References

* Lamarck, J.B.P.A. de M. 1822. ''Histoire naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres.'' Paris : J.B. Lamarck Vol. 7 711 pp. * Habe, T. 1964. ''Shells of the Western Pacific in color.'' Osaka : Hoikusha Vol. 2 233 pp., 66 pls. * Rehder H.A. (1973). ''The family Harpidae of the world.'' Indo-Pacific Mollusca 3(16) : 207–274. * Tantanasiriwong, R. 1978. ''An illustrated checklist of marine shelled gastropods from Phuket Island, adjacent mainland and offshore islands, Western Peninsula, Thailand.'' Phuket Marine Biological Center, Research Bulletin 21: 1-22, 259 figs * Walls, J.G. (1980). ''Conchs, tibias and harps. A survey of the molluscan families Strombidae and Harpidae''. T.F.H. Publications Ltd, Hong Kong * Springsteen, F.J. & Leobrera, F.M. 1986. ''Shells of the Philippines''. Manila : Carfel Seashell Museum 377 pp., 100 pls. * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp. * Dance, S.P. & G.T. Poppe, 1999 ''Family Harpidae''. In : A Conchological Iconography (ConchBooks, ed.), 69 p.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harpa Articularis articularis Gastropods described in 1822 Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck