''Splendrillia lucida'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of
sea snail, a marine
gastropod mollusk
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Drilliidae
The Drilliidae are a taxonomic family of small predatory sea snails with high-spired shells. They are classified as marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.
This family has no subfamilies. It consists of about 30 genera and approxi ...
.
Description
The length of the shell attains 8 mm, its diameter 3 mm.
(Original description) The shell is acuminately fusiform, very smooth and glittering. It is white, slightly and irregularly marbled with pale brown here and there between the ribs and especially behind the outer
lip
The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...
. The suture is distinct. 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 calle ...
is blunt and rounded, almost like that of ''
Pyramidella
''Pyramidella'' is a genus of minute to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Pyramidellinae of the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.
''Pyramidella'' is the type genus of the family Pyramidellida ...
'' in character. The shell contains 8 to 9
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 flo ...
s. The two first are smooth and embryonal, the others divided with a deeply incised groove beneath the suture, longitudinally, thickly, distantly ribbed. The body whorl contains 9 ribs, transversely striated at its base, gibbous posteriorly, with a rather considerable smooth space behind the marginal
varix
A varix (pl. varices) is an abnormally dilated vessel with a tortuous course. Varices usually occur in the venous system, but may also occur in arterial or lymphatic vessels.
Examples of varices include:
* Varicose veins, large tortuous veins ...
. Next the suture the upper part of the ribs, cut off by the deep spiral groove, have the appearance of a row of granules. The
columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire.
His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the ...
and the
aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An ...
are smooth. There is a callous tubercle at the junction of outer lip with the former. The sinus is very deeply excavated.
The white shell is slightly and irregularly marbled with pale brown, between the ribs and especially behind the outer lip. It is allied in general to ''
Leptadrillia quisqualis
''Leptadrillia quisqualis'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Drilliidae.
Description
The shell grows to a length of 11 mm. The white shell is obtusely angulated, smooth above the angle, which is nodose ...
''
(Hinds, 1843), but it is but is smaller, with transverse striae at the base of the
body whorl, with a row of granules and a deep groove beneath the suture, and with straight instead of oblique ribs.
G.W. Tryon (1884) Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species, vol. VI; Philadelphia, Academy of Natural Sciences
/ref>
Distribution
This marine species occurs in the Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...
and the Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...
and off the Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...
.
References
External links
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295
{{DEFAULTSORT:Splendrillia Lucida
lucida
Lucida (pronunciation: ) is an extended family of related typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes and released from 1984 onwards. The family is intended to be extremely legible when printed at small size or displayed on a low-reso ...
Gastropods described in 1875