''Phymorhynchus sulciferus'' 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 ...

Raphitomidae Raphitomidae is a Family (biology), family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families" ...

Description

The length of the shell attains 30 mm, its diameter 12 mm. (Original description) The fusiform shell is rather large, rather thin, translucent white with very little lustre. It has a high, regularly tapered

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 ...

of six obtusely shouldered

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, not counting the

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called " ...

which is broken off, and a long, nearly straight

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 ...

and a broad, straight

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 ...

occupying about half the length of the shell. The posterior sinus is as broad as the subsutural band, shallow, slightly broken. 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 thin, curving very gently to join the columella with but a very slight bending in anteriorly, not forming a well-defined

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water i ...

. The columella shows a thin, narrow strip of enamel extending its entire length. The suture is inconspicuous. The subsutural band is rather broad, oblique, crossed by delicate slightly curved riblets, most distinct on the upper whorls. Narrow, oblique, angular ribs, fifteen on 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 ...

, separated by rather deep, narrow spaces, cross the whorls, rising just above the periphery and not quite reaching to the suture. These are cut just above the middle by a broad, shallow groove, making them appear, especially on the body whorl, as two rows of nodules. In some positions of the shell there seems to be a second similar groove (scarcely discernible) below this one. The spiral

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

is very irregular. On the body whorl, below the transverse ribs, there are from twenty-five to thirty shallow grooves, varying in width, and having between them flattened bauds or threads. On the siphonal canal they are so close together that their interspaces appear like rounded threads. Above these, about the middle of the whorl, they are very broad, and separated by equally broad flattened bands, while still above these, below the ribs, they are again narrowed and separated by flattened threads. On the ribs the grooves also vary considerably. On each side of the principal groove, a rather broad, flattened thread forms a slight crest on the summit of the ribs, and beyond the lower one of these there are two or three fine rounded threads. The principal groove is also interrupted by a rounded thread at about the middle, and two or three very faint ones above and below it. On the upper part of the ribs there are two or three unequal grooves. On the penultimate whorl there are four grooves below the principal one, separated by nearly equal spaces, with but a single rounded thread on the centre of the first or principal one. With the exception of the subsutural band, the surface is covered with microscopic striae, which, in intersecting the inconspicuous lines of growth, give a peculiar crinkled appearance to the surface.

Distribution

''P. sulciferus'' can be found off the North American coastline, ranging from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

.;Tunnell, John W., Jr., Felder, Darryl L., & Earle, Sylvia A., eds. ''Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota, Volume 1: Biodiversity.'' Texas A&M University Press, 2009. 668. also in the Atlantic Ocean off

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

(described as ''Pleurotoma decoloratum'').

References

* Sysoev A.V. (2014). ''Deep-sea fauna of European seas: An annotated species check-list of benthic invertebrates living deeper than 2000 m in the seas bordering Europe.'' Gastropoda. Invertebrate Zoology. Vol.11. No.1: 134–155 * Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (eds), European Register of Marine Species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Patrimoines Naturels. 50: 180–213.

External links

Dautzenberg P. & Fischer H. (1896). Dragages effectués par l'Hirondelle et par la Princesse Alice 1888-1895. 1. Mollusques Gastéropodes. Mémoires de la Société Zoologique de France. 9: 395-498, pl. 15-22

Locard A. (1897-1898). Expéditions scientifiques du Travailleur et du Talisman pendant les années 1880, 1881, 1882 et 1883. Mollusques testacés. Paris, Masson. vol. 1 [1897], p. 1-516 pl. 1-22; vol. 2 [1898], p. 1-515, pl. 1-18
*
Gastropods.com: ''Phymorhynchus sulciferus''

MNHN, Paris: ''Pleurotoma fischeri'' Locard, 1897
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phymorhynchus Sulciferus sulciferus Gastropods described in 1893