''Pustularia cicercula'' 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

cowry Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used wo ...

, 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 ...

Cypraeidae Cypraeidae, common name, commonly named the cowries ( cowry or cowrie), is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small to large sea snails. These are marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, ...

, the cowries.

Subspecies

The following subspecies are recognized : * ''Pustularia cicercula cicercula'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *''Pustularia cicercula takahashii'' Moretzsohn, 2007 * ''Pustularia cicercula tricornis'' (Jousseaume, 1874) * ''Pustularia cicercula tuamotensis'' Lorenz, 1999 *''Pustularia cicercula avrilae'' Heiman, 2009: synonym of ''Pustularia cicercula tuamotensis'' Lorenz, 1999 *''Pustularia cicercula lienardi'' ( Jousseaume, 1874): synonym of ''Pustularia cicercula tricornis'' (Jousseaume, 1874)

Description

The length of the shell attains 20.3 mm, lateral diameter 13.6 mm, dorsoventral diameter 11.8 mm The shell is highly inflated, its extremities produced and slightly upturned; the granulose dorsal surface bears a shallow central crease. Ladd, H.S. (1977). Cenozoic fossil mollusks from western Pacific islands; Gastropods (Eratoidae through Harpidae). U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. 533: i–iv, 1–84, pls 1–23

Distribution

This species and its subspecies occur in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and in the Indian Ocean off

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, 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,

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. A single fossil of the type species was collected from the post-Tertiary limestones of the

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium () and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three th ...

References

* Jousseaume, F., 1874. Description de quelques espèces nouvelles de coquilles appartenant aux genres Murex, Cypraea & Natica. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée (3)2: 3-25 * Verdcourt, B. (1959). ''The cowries of the East African Coast: Supplement II''. JEANHS XXIII (100): 130–134 * Heiman, E.L. & Mienis, H.K., 2008. - Cypraea tricornis Jousseaume, 1874: a study of the type material. Triton 18: 9-10 * Lorenz F. (2014). Monograph of the genus Pustularia (Gastropoda: Cypraeidae). Harxheim: ConchBooks. 130 pp * Liu, J.Y. uiyu(ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. China Science Press. 1267 pp.

External links

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata (10th revised edition), vol. 1: 824 pp. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae
Cypraeidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Cypraeidae-stub