''Splendrillia bednalli'' 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

Drilliidae The Drilliidae are a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small predatory sea snails with high-spired shells. They are classified as marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. This family has no s ...

Description

(Original description) The length of the shell attains 16 mm, its diameter 5 mm. The white shell has an elongate-turreted shape with an acuminate spire. The shell contains 9½ convex, obtusely angulated

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). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s. A very characteristic species, marked with brown transverse lines, about six 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 ...

. The specimens vary somewhat. The holotype is pretty distinctly longitudinally ribbed, and the ribs are raised to form a crown at the angle. In other individuals the ribs are obsolete, only the nodules at the angle remaining. The oblong aperture has a moderate width. The columella is slightly contorted.Sowerby, G.B. (3rd) 1897. ''List of Pleurotomidae of South Australia, with descriptions of some new species.'' Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 2: 24–32
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Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off South Australia

References

* Wells, F.E. 1990. ''Revision of the recent Australian Turridae referred to the genera Splendrillia and Austrodrillia.'' Journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia 11: 73–117

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295

Petit, R. E. (2009). ''George Brettingham Sowerby, I, II & III: their conchological publications and molluscan taxa''. Zootaxa. 2189: 1–218
{{DEFAULTSORT:Splendrillia Bednalli bednalli Gastropods of Australia Gastropods described in 1896