''Awateria crossei'' 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 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 e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Borsoniidae Borsoniidae is a monophyletic family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet, P. (2011). Borsoniidae. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.o ...

.WoRMS (2015). Awateria crossei (E. A. Smith, 1891). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=433094 on 10 February 2016

Description

The length of the shell attains 10 mm, its breadth 3.75 mm. (Original description) The small, white shell has a fusiform shape. It contains seven

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. The top ones are left-handed and convex, the others slightly concave above the rest, with rounded angles. It contains about 15 diagonal riblets that are less attenuated in the last whorls. 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 opt ...

is small. The angle on top of the lip is not deeply sinuated. This species has the whorls much contracted at the lower part and prominent at the rounded angle. The riblets are oblique below, and flexuous in the concavity. The spiral lirae are more conspicuous around the lower part of 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 ...

than elsewhere, and altogether absent in the concavity below the sutural line.Smith, E. A. (1891b) ''Descriptions of new species of shells from the ‛Challenger’ expedition''. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1891, 436–445, pls. 34–35.
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Distribution

This marine species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Awateria Crossei crossei Gastropods described in 1891 Gastropods of Australia