''Vokesimurex gallinago'', common name the hen murex, 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 ...

Muricidae Muricidae is a large and varied taxonomic family of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks, commonly known as murex snails or rock snails. With over 1,700 living species, the Muricidae represent almost 10% of the Neog ...

, the murex snails or rock snails. ;Subspecies: * ''Vokesimurex gallinago fernandesi'' (Houart, 1990) * ''Vokesimurex gallinago gallinago'' (G. B. Sowerby III, 1903) (synonyms:''Murex senkakuensis'' Shikama, 1973, ''Murex rectirostris senkakuensis'' Shikama, 1973)

Description

The size of the shell varies between 40 mm and 100 mm. (Original description) This is an elegantly formed and delicately coloured shell, somewhat resembling, on a small scale, ''

Vokesimurex malabaricus ''Vokesimurex malabaricus'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails. Description The shell of an adult specimen grows to a length of 106.1 mm. (Original description) T ...

'' (E. A. Smith, 1894) but with the longitudinal ribs or plications much stouter and less numerous. It bears also some resemblance to '' Vokesimurex rectirostris'' (G. B. Sowerby II, 1841), but the varices are not spinose, or at least scarcely perceptibly so. In the squamose rather than spinose character of the base of the varices the shell appears to have some affinity with those of the '' Siratus motacilla'' (Gmelin, 1791) group.Sowerby, G. B. III. (1903). Descriptions of fourteen new species of marine molluscs from Japan. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 7, 12: 496-501.

Distribution

This Indo-Pacific marine species occurs from

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 ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

References

* Merle D., Garrigues B. & Pointier J.-P. (2011) Fossil and Recent Muricidae of the world. Part Muricinae. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 648 pp * Houart R. (2014). ''Living Muricidae of the world. Muricinae. Murex, Promurex, Haustellum, Bolinus, Vokesimurex and Siratus''. Harxheim: ConchBooks. 197 pp.

External links

gallinago ''Gallinago'' is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 18 species. Taxonomy The name ''Gallinago'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 as a subdivision of the genus ''Scolopax''. Bri ...

Gastropods described in 1903 {{Muricinae-stub