''Azorilla lottae'' 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

Raphitomidae Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". ''Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 39 ...

.MolluscaBase (2019). MolluscaBase. Azorilla lottae (Verrill, 1885). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=832495 on 2019-02-17

Description

The length of the shell attains 11.5 mm, its diameter 7.5 mm. (Original description) The small, short shell has an ovate-fusiform shape. it is moderately stout, with slightly shouldered, convex

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, and a regularly tapered, acute spire. The Suture is shallow, but well-marked. The shell consists of 4½ whorls, besides the large protoconch, which consists of about 3½ gradually increasing whorls. The whorls of the spire are obscurely shouldered at about the middle, above which the broad, sloping subsutural band is slightly concave. The sculpture on the penultimate whorl consists of about six elevated, rounded, revolving cinguli, with some much finer intermediate ones; some of the smaller cinguli are also found on the subsutural band. The transverse sculpture consists of fine, slightly flexuous lines of growth, crossing both the cinguli and their intervals, and on the subsutural band becoming more prominent in the form of oblique, recurved riblets, which do not take the form of nodules. On 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 ...

the revolving cinguli continue at about uniform distances over the entire whorl and

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 ...

, but anteriorly the cinguli thicken and are wider than the grooves, while on the convex part of the whorl they are narrower than the intervals. The aperture is broad-ovate, rather large, acute posteriorly. The outer lip is thin, strongly convex in the middle, with a broad and shallow posterior sinus above the shoulder. The siphonal canal is short, straight, not contracted at the base. The columella is straight in the middle, with an oblique anterior edge. The inner margin of the aperture is strongly excavated and subangular at the base of the columella. There is no umbilicus . The animal is destitute of an operculum. The protoconch whorls are deep chestnut-brown, very minutely reticulated by oblique lines running in two directions. The whorls are regularly convex, the apical ones minute and a little prominent, so that the apex is acute. The color of the shell below the brown protoconch is translucent bluish white, with a somewhat glossy surface; when dead, yellowish white.Verrill A. E. (1885). Third catalogue of mollusca recently added to the fauna of the New England Coast and the adjacent parts of the Atlantic, consisting mostly of deep sea species, with notes on others previously recorded. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 6: 395-452, pl. 42-44
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Distribution

This marine species occurs off the New Jersey, USA.

References

* Beu, A.G. 2011 Marine Molluscs of oxygen isotope stages of the last 2 million years in New Zealand. Part 4. Gastropoda (Ptenoglossa, Neogastropoda, Heterobranchia). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 41, 1–153 {{DEFAULTSORT:Azorilla Lottae lottae Gastropods described in 1885