''Antiguraleus murrheus'' is a species of
sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...
, a marine
gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...
mollusk in the
family Mangeliidae.
[Marshall, B. (2015). Antiguraleus murrheus (Webster, 1906). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=432994 on 2017-03-03]
Description
The length of the shell attains 5 mm, its diameter 3 mm.
(Original description) The white shell is semitransparent. It contains
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).
Whorls in nature
File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...
s, including a smooth
protoconch
A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called ...
of whorls. The sculpture consists of longitudinal ribs, stronger on the earlier whorls, weaker towards the
body whorl
The body whorl is part of the morphology of the 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 gastropods
In gastropods, the b ...
, which has about fifteen ribs extending to the suture. These ribs are crossed by faint spirals, the posterior or peripheral being the strongest, two on the second whorl, three above the
aperture, a fourth on the body whorl, beyond which the longitudinal ribs only persist a short distance. The whorls are tabulated above the periphery. Seen under a lens, it shows many subsidiary spiral striations between the main spirals. The suture is well marked by a narrow overlapping of each whorl by the one following. The base has fifteen spiral striae. The aperture shows a conspicuous sinus in the infrasutural tabulation, but there is no anal fasciole. The type is waterworn.
W.H. Webster, ''Results of Dredging on the Continental Shelf of Neiv Zealand''; Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. Vol. 38. 1905
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Distribution
This marine species occurs off Northland east coast to Cook Strait, New Zealand
References
* Powell, A.W.B. 1979: ''New Zealand Mollusca: Marine, Land and Freshwater Shells'', Collins, Auckland (p. 239)
* Spencer, H.G., Marshall, B.A. & Willan, R.C. (2009). Checklist of New Zealand living Mollusca. pp 196–219. in: Gordon, D.P. (ed.) New Zealand inventory of biodiversity. Volume one. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch.
External links
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1-1295.
New Zealand Mollusca: ''Propebela murrhea''
Image of ''Antiguraleus murrheus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3739443
murrheus
Gastropods described in 1906
Gastropods of New Zealand