''Solariella charopa'' 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 ...

Solariellidae.

Description

The height of the shell is 1.95 cm (0.77-inch), its diameter 1.98 cm (0.78-inch). The thin, translucent, umbilicated shell has a globosely conical shape. It is banded and iridescent. The

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 ...

shows spiral threads numbering from twenty-five to thirty-five, sharply projecting, rounded, and fine 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 ...

. Of these, there are from three to seven feebler than the rest. Those on the base are continued within 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 ...

. The interstices are much broader than the threads. The whole surface is also fretted by microscopic spirals and stronger longitudinals, which follow the oblique lines of growth. Of the threads, six to thirteen appear on the penultimate whorl. They begin with the second whorl, and there the longitudinals are rather disproportionately strong and regular. The embryonic

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

is faintly but coarsely tubercled. The color of the shell is yellowish white, shot on the upper side with a dark iridescence. The spirals are black, clouded, and broken with oblique longitudinal streaks of white. 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 high and scalar. The apex, porcelanous and scarcely iridescent, is small, high, and mammillate, and consists of the one embryonic whorl, which is a little turned up on its side. The six whorls increase gradually and regularly in size. They are rounded, near the apex a little angulated by one of the spirals. The suture well marked, angulated, but not sharply so. The aperture is rather oblique, rounded, hardly angulated at the upper corner, not in the least descending, brilliantly iridescent within and showing the colored spirals of the outside. 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, slightly puckered at the spirals, a little thickened on the base. The inner lip is thickened and reflected, especially at its junction with the body where it almost covers the umbilicus. 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 much curved, and thins gradually out to its junction with the base. The umbilicus is large and funnel-shaped on the base, deep, but small further in, contracted by a spiral white columellar pad, and more than half covered over by the columellar lip. The operculum is rather thin, horny, yellow, with ten or twelve very gradual turns, which are strongly defined by a thickened line. It is feebly marked with concentric and with radiating lines.Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This marine species occurs off the

Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...

References

* Watson, Jour. Linn. Soc. Lond. xiv, p. 700 ; Challenger Gasterop., p. 78, t. 5, f. 6. {{DEFAULTSORT:Solariella Charopa charopa Gastropods described in 1879