''Solariella charopa'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk in the family

Solariellidae Solariellidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).Gofas, S. (2011). Solariellidae. Accessed through: World Register of ...

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 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 of the 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. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

. Of these, there are from three to seven feebler than the rest. Those on the base are continued within the aperture. 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 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 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 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 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 sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...

References

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

charopa ''Charopa'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Charopidae. ''Charopa'' is the type genus of the family Charopidae. Species Species within the genus ''Charopa'' include: * '' Charopa ...

Gastropods described in 1879