''Tegula gallina'' (or commonly, Speckled Tegula) is a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

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 ...

Tegulidae Tegulidae is a family of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).Bouchet, P. (2013). Tegulidae Kuroda, Habe & Oyama, 1971. Acces ...

.Rosenberg, G. (2012). Tegula gallina (Forbes, 1850). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=534191 on 2012-09-13

Description

The shell of ''T. gallina'' is typically high and wide, though it may be slightly higher than wide. The imperforate, heavy, solid, thick shell has a conoidal shape and is elevated. Its colors show alternating whitish and purplish-grey or blackish crowded, slanting axial stripes, speckled with whitish. The stripes occupy the interstices between close, narrow superficial folds of the surface, which may be well-marked, or obsolete, continuous or cut into granules by equally close spiral furrows, the latter sometimes predominating. Its 5 to 6

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). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

s are convex and rough, and usually indented a short distance below the suture. 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 conoidal. The

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 usually blunt, eroded and yellow. 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 ...

is rounded at the periphery. The convex base often has an eroded area in front of 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 ...

, above a closed umbilicus, the area around which is usually white. The oblique aperture is nearly round. 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 black-edged, smooth and pearly within. 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 short, arcuate, and strongly bidentate near the base. The place of the umbilicus is marked by a pit The above description applies to the typical form. 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 ...

of the surface is superficial and very variable, as is the distribution of the color markings, which is dependent upon the sculpture. It is sometimes difficult to separate this from '' Tegula funebralis''.Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
/ref> Tegula gallina-upperside.jpg, upperside,

Point Loma, San Diego Point Loma ( Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community in San Diego, California, United States. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on th ...

Tegula gallina-underside.jpg, underside,

Distribution

''T. gallina'' lives on intertidal rocks. Its range extends from

Santa Barbara County, California Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a County (United States), county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, California ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

(

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

). Larger specimens of the species live in the southern portion of its range; it is often found alongside the less-common Black Tegula (''T. funebralis'').

References

* Turgeon, D.D., et al. 1998. ''Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates of the United States and Canada''. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 26 page(s): 61

External links

''Tegula gallina''
at ''Molluscs of Southern California'' (includes photos)
Geographic range of ''Tegula gallina''
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3172249 gallina Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Gastropods described in 1850 Taxa named by Edward Forbes