''Tricolia pullus'' 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 small 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 ...

Phasianellidae Phasianellidae common name the "pheasant shells" or "pheasant snails" is a family of small sea snails with calcareous opercula, marine gastropod mollusks in the subclass Vetigastropoda. Taxonomy The family Phasianellidae consists of three ...

Subspecies

Subspecies within this species are not clearly distinguishable and are described on a geographical base. They include: * ''Tricolia pullus azorica'' (Dautzenberg, 1889) * ''Tricolia pullus canarica'' Nordsieck, 1973 * ''Tricolia pullus picta'' (da Costa, 1778) (synonyms: ''Phasianella pullus picta'' (da Costa, 1778); ''Tricolia picta'' (da Costa, 1778) ) * ''Tricolia pullus pullus'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, t ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoological ...

) (synonym: ''Turbo pullus pullus'' Linnaeus, 1758) File:Tricolia pullus canarica 01.JPG, ''Tricolia pullus canarica'' File:Tricolia pullus picta 01.JPG, ''Tricolia pullus picta''

Description

The size of the plump, oval shell varies between 3 mm and 11 mm. The shell has five or six rounded, gently convex

whorls 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 d ...

with a smooth structure, the body whorl being the largest. The shell has a short, abrupt

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. Spires are ...

. There is no distinct

umbilicus Umbilicus may refer to: *The navel or belly button *Umbilicus (mollusc), a feature of gastropod, Nautilus and Ammonite shell anatomy * ''Umbilicus'' (plant), a genus of over ninety species of perennial flowering plants *Umbilicus urbis Romae The ...

. 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 ...

is roundish oval with a conspicuous operculum is thick and has a white calcareous surface. The colour pattern of the shiny shell is very variable and goes from cream to white with pink or purple-brown spots spirally distributed in zigzag or flamed patterns. The adults are

gonochoristic In biology, gonochorism is a sexual system where there are only two sexes and each individual organism is either male or female. The term gonochorism is usually applied in animal species, the vast majority of which are gonochoric. Gonochorism c ...

, i.e. consisting of distinct males and females. The

ova , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...

are released in the sea and fertilized externally.Marie Lebour (1937), The Eggs and Larvae of the British Prosobranchs with Special Reference to those Living in the Plankton, Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (1937), 22: 105-166,

Distribution

This species is distributed in European waters, the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Ker ...

, in the Atlantic Ocean along the Canaries and in the Indian Ocean along

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It is found in the

sublittoral zone The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

and deeper waters (up to 35 m) in often abundant numbers on red

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ke ...

s (''Laurencia'', ''Lomentaria'', ''Mastocarpus''), collecting diatoms and

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commu ...

References

* Dautzenberg, P. (1923). ''Liste préliminaire des mollusques marins de Madagascar et description de deux especes nouvelles''. Journal de Conchyliologie 68: 21-74 * Vera Fretter, ''Some observations on ''Tricolia pullus'' (L.) and ''Margarites helicinus'' (Fabricius)'', J. Mollus. Stud. (1955) 31 (3-4): 159–162. * Backeljau, T. (1986). ''Lijst van de recente mariene mollusken van België

ist of the recent marine molluscs of Belgium Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

'. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussels, Belgium. 106 pp. * Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). ''European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification''. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213 * Kantor Yu.I. & Sysoev A.V. (2006) ''Marine and brackish water Gastropoda of Russia and adjacent countries: an illustrated catalogue''. Moscow: KMK Scientific Press. 372 pp. + 140 pls

External links

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae. ii, 824 pp
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tricolia Pullus Phasianellidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus