''Turbo argyrostomus'', common name the silver-mouthed turban, 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 ...

, 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 ...

Turbinidae.

Subspecies

Two subspecies have been recognized : * ''Turbo argyrostomus argyrostomus'' Linnaeus, 1758 (synonyms : ''Turbo argentata'' Röding, 1798 ; ''Turbo argenteus'' Anton, 1839 ; ''Turbo canaliculatus'' Gmelin, 1791; ''Turbo carduus'' P. Fischer, 1873; ''Turbo ferrugineus'' Anton, 1839 ; ''Turbo permundus'' Iredale, 1929; ''Turbo princeps'' Philippi, 1846; ''Turbo psittacinus'' Philippi, 1846; ''Turbo semicostatus'' Pease, 1861) : this subspecies has been placed by same authors in the subgenus ''Turbo'' (''Marmarostoma'') ** ''Turbo argyrostomus argyrostomus'' f. ''carduus'' P. Fischer, 1873 * ''Turbo argyrostomus perspeciosus'' (Iredale, 1929): (synonym : ''Turbo speciosus'' Reeve, 1848) : this subspecies has been placed by same authors in the subgenus ''Turbo'' (''Marmarostoma'') ;Subspecies brought into synonymy: * ''Turbo argyrostomus lajonkairii'' (Deshayes, 1839): this subspecies has been placed by same authors in the subgenus ''Turbo'' (''Marmarostoma'') : synonym of '' Turbo lajonkairii'' (Deshayes, 1839) * ''Turbo argyrostomus sandwicensis'' (Pease, 1861): this subspecies has been placed by same authors in the subgenus ''Turbo'' (''Marmarostoma'') : synonym of '' Turbo sandwicensis'' (Pease, 1861)

Description

This species grows to a length of up to 9 cm. The solid, large shell has an ovate-pointed shape. This is a very variable species. The color pattern of the shell is cream, irregularly maculated with greenish and brown, and broken lines of black. The apex is almost always pink. The six whorls are convex, separated by subcanaliculate sutures. The upper two whorls are smooth, the lower spirally lirate and radiately more or less squamose striate. The lirae are sometimes subequal and nearly smooth. The main body whorl has 20 distinct spiral ribs, mostly flat-topped, some with fluted scales. The body whorl contains about thirteen lirae, which are generally wider than their interstices, and of which the subcoronal and one or two median ones are more prominent. The penultimate and last whorl bear numerous elevated vaulted scales upon the lirae. The aperture is pearly white or brownish tinted within, about half the length of the shell. It is round-ovate, angled above, dilated and subchannelled below. The columella is thickened, somewhat flattened and grooved below the narrow deeply perforating umbilicus. T The operculum is flat inside with 5 whorls. Its nucleus is situated one-third the distance across the face. The outer surface is convex, with coarse obtuse granules, which are largest upon the higher part, nearly surrounded by a marginal series of fine oblique wrinkles. The color is white, more or less tinged with flesh color upon the outer half, and with a narrow marginal orange line.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This species and its subspecies are distributed 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 ...

and in the tropical Indo-West Pacific off Aldabra, Chagos,

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, the Mascarene Basin,

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

; off Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands,

East India East India is a region consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The states of Bihar and West Bengal lie on the Indo-Gangetic plain. Jharkhan ...

, 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 ...

; off Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

References

* Linnaeus, C. 1758. ''Systemae naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differetiis, synonymis, locis.''v. Holmiae : Laurentii Salvii 824 pp. * Gmelin J.F. 1791. ''Caroli a Linné. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis.'' Lipsiae : Georg. Emanuel. Beer Vermes. Vol. 1(Part 6) pp. 3021–3910. * Röding, P.F. 1798. ''Museum Boltenianum sive Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa''. Hamburg : Trappii 199 pp * Schepman, M.M. 1908. ''Prosobranchia (excluding Heteropoda and parasitic Prosobranchia). Rhipidoglossa and Docoglossa. With an appendix by Prof. R. Bergh ectinobranchiata'. Siboga-Expéditie Report 49(1): 1–108, 9 pls. * Oliver, W.R.B. 1915. ''The Mollusca of the Kermadec Islands.'' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 47: 509-568 * Wilson, B.R. & Gillett, K. 1971. ''Australian Shells: illustrating and describing 600 species of marine gastropods found in Australian waters''. Sydney : Reed Books 168 pp. * * Salvat, B. & Rives, C. 1975. ''Coquillages de Polynésie.'' Tahiti : Papeete les editions du pacifique, pp. 1–391. * Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). ''Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice'' * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods.'' Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Subba Rao, N.V. 2003. ''Indian Seashells (Part 1)''. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper (192): 1-416 * Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2003). ''A Conchological Iconography: The Family Turbinidae, Subfamily Turbininae, Genus Turbo''. Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany. * Williams, S.T. (2007). ''Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae)''. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turbo Argyrostomus argyrostomus Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Marine gastropods