''Toledonia bullata'' 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 ...

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 ...

Ringiculidae Ringiculidae are a family (biology), family of small deep water sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the informal group Lower Heterobranchia.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., ...

.MolluscaBase eds. (2024). MolluscaBase. Toledonia bullata (A. Gould, 1847). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=509688 on 1 April 2024

Description

The length of the shell attains 6.25 mm, its diameter 4.16 mm. The small shell is thin, smooth, whitish and covered with a most delicate straw colored epidermis. The whole surface is marked with regularly arranged, deep, linear, revolving grooves, of which there are about five on the upper

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, and about sixteen on 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 ...

. In some parts the furrows seem to be crossed by delicate bars. The interspaces are flat. There are five whorls, which have a distinct, square shoulder; the body whorl is tumid, the upper one plane. 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 lunate, about three-fifths the length of the shell. 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 ...

, about one-third the length of the aperture, is flat, and divided by a single groove.G.W. Tryon, (1893) - Manual of conchology, structural and systematic : with illustrations of the species ser;1 vol. 15; Philadelphia, Published by the Author, Academy of Natural Sciences, 1879-1898

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Atlantic Ocean off

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

References

External links

Gould, A. A. (1847). Descriptions of new shells, collected by the United States Exploring Expedition. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 2: 196-198, 200-203, 204-208
Gastropods described in 1847 {{Ringiculidae-stub