''Austrodrillia agrestis'' 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

Horaiclavidae Horaiclavidae is a family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. In 2011 this family was split off from the family Pseudomelatomidae (formerly the subfamily Crassispirinae McLean, 1971) by Bouchet P., Ka ...

. It was formerly included within the family

Turridae Turridae is a taxonomic family name for a number of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. MolluscaBase (2018). Turridae H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 (1838). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Specie ...

Description

The length of the attains 8.5 mm, its diameter 3 mm. The solid, rugged shell has an elongate-fusiform shape. 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 the protoconch of one whorl and a half, smooth, round, and blunt. The whorls on the spire are sloping, scarcely concave in the upper part, convex in the lower. The suture is distinct, with a narrow adpressed margin. 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 ...

is concavely attenuated at the base. The aperture is obliquely oval and shortly contracted posteriorly. The

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is ...

is short, open and barely notched. The outer lip is sharp, slightly ascending at the suture. The posterior sinus is deep, rather narrow, separated from the suture by a distance equal to its width, then convex, with an anterior shallow sinus at the base of the siphonal canal. The inner lip is inconspicuous, applied, smooth, with a callosity at its junction with the outer lip. The sculpture of the first two whorls is closely, regularly, validly, axially costulate, the rest rudely ribbed in the anterior two-thirds. The ribs are oblique, rounded, rather wider than the interspaces, becoming less marked and more distant on the

, and almost absent on the base, about 14 in the penultimate whorl. There are sublenticular accremental incisions. The spiral incisions ai'e deep, irregularly slightly wavy, about 8 in the penultimate whorl, and 20 in the body whorl, nearly equidistant, in places alternately fine and wide. The colour of the shell is uniform light-straw tint.Verco, J.C. 1909. ''Notes on South Australian marine Mollusca with descriptions of new species. Part XII.'' Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 33: 293–342
(described as ''Drillia agrestis'')

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off South Australia.

References

* Hedley, C. 1922. ''A revision of the Australian Turridae.'' Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213–359, pls 42–56 * Wells, F.E. 1990. ''Revision of the recent Australian Turridae referred to the genera Splendrillia and Austrodrillia''. Journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia 11: 73–117 * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295
{{DEFAULTSORT:Austrodrillia Agrestis agrestis Gastropods of Australia