''Terebra amanda'', common name Amanda's auger, 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 ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

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 ...

Terebridae The Terebridae, commonly referred to as auger shells or auger snails, is a Family (biology), family of predatory marine (ocean), marine gastropods in the superfamily Conoidea.Gofas, S. (2012). Terebridae. World Register of Marine Specie2012-10-12 ...

, the auger snails.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 25 mm and 95 mm. (Original description) The shell is rather bluntly, elongately subulate. It is pale brownish orange throughout. It contains 17

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, sculptured with a coarse infrasutural spiral crenate rib and five smaller spiral crenate ribs The interstices are finely punctate. 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 ...

is small. 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 ...

recurved and twisted. The

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water i ...

is short.Preston, H. B. "Descriptions of new species of land, marine and freshwater shells from the Andaman Islands." Records of the Indian Museum 2.2 (1908): 187–210
(described as ''Terebra unicolor'')

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, in the Indo-Pacific and off

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and the Solomons.

References

* Vine, P. (1986). ''Red Sea Invertebrates.'' Immel Publishing, London. 224 pp * Bratcher T. & Cernohorsky W.O. (1987). ''Living terebras of the world. A monograph of the recent Terebridae of the world.'' American Malacologists, Melbourne, Florida & Burlington, Massachusetts. 240pp. * Terryn Y. (2007). ''Terebridae: A Collectors Guide.'' Conchbooks & NaturalArt. 59pp + plates. * Severns M. (2011) ''Shells of the Hawaiian Islands - The Sea Shells.'' Conchbooks, Hackenheim. 564 pp.

External links

Gastropods.com: ''Terebra (Amanda-group) amanda''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3702997 Terebridae Gastropods described in 1844 Taxa named by Richard Brinsley Hinds