''Lotoria'' is a

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 ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

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 ...

s, 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 ...

s 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 ...

Cymatiidae Cymatiidae is a family of large sea snails in the superfamily Tonnoidea and the order Littorinimorpha. Members of this family are predators. Genera The family Cymatiidae contains the following genera: * '' Argobuccinum'' Herrmannsen, 1846 * '' ...

Description

The triangular

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 coronated. The

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 longer than 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 ...

. The outer

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

is dentated internally.

Distribution

This genus occurs in the Indo-West Pacific and off the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...

and Australia (

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 ...

)

Species

Species within the genus ''Lotoria'' include: * '' Lotoria armata'' (G.B. Sowerby III, 1897) * ''

Lotoria grandimaculata ''Lotoria grandimaculata'', common name : the large spotted triton, is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusk in the family (biology), family Cymatiidae. Description The shell size varies between 50 ...

'' (Reeve, 1844) * '' Lotoria lotoria'' (Linnaeus, 1758) * '' Lotoria triangularis'' (Perry, 1811) ;Synonyms: * ''Lotoria perryi'' (Emerson & Old, 1963): synonym of '' Lotoria triangularis'' (Perry, 1811)

References

* Henning, T. & Hemmen, J. 1993. Ranellidae and Personidae of the World. Wiesbaden, Germany : V.C. Hemmen 263 pp. * Wilson, B. 1993. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Beu, A.G. 1998. Indo-West Pacific Ranellidae, Bursidae and Personidae. A monograph of the New Caledonian fauna, with revisions of related taxa. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris * Beu, A.G., Bouchet, P. & Tröndlé, J. 2012. Tonnoidean gastropods of French Polynesia. Molluscan Research 32(2): 61-120

External links

Emerson W.K. & Old W.E. (1963). A new subgenus and species of Cymatium (Mollusca, Gastropoda). ''American Museum Novitates''. 2137: 1-13.
Cymatiidae {{Cymatiidae-stub