''Bathytoma lacertosus'' 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

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 ...

Description

The length of the shell attains 13 mm, its width 7 mm. (Original description) The solid shell is biconical. It contains six

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, of which two compose the

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 ...

. Its colour is salmon-buff, the ribs cream. A few scattered ferruginous dots and large square ferruginous spots appear in the intercostal spaces. The ribs are low, trabecular, and projecting in an acute angle from the shoulder. There are nine ribs 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 ...

. Sometimes elevated crescentic lamellae extend from these ribs to the suture. Other lamellae continue as fine growth lines across the shell. The spirals are faint threads, evanescent on the shoulder and prominent on the snout. Of these there are about forty on the body whorl, twelve of which are posterior to the angle. The aperture is simple and unfinished in the only example available.

Distribution

This species occurs in the demersal zone of Southwest Pacific Ocean off Queensland and New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

.Sealifebase: ''Clavus lacertosus''
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References

Hedley, C. 1922. A revision of the Australian Turridae. Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213-359, pls 42-56
* Laseron, C. 1954. ''Revision of the New South Wales Turridae (Mollusca).'' Australian Zoological Handbook. Sydney : Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 1-56, pls 1–12. * Wells F.E. (1991) ''A revision of the Recent Australian species of the turrid genera Clavus, Plagiostropha, and Tylotiella (Mollusca: Gastropoda).'' Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 12: 1–33. * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.
Bouchet P., Kantor Yu.I., Sysoev A. & Puillandre N. (2011) A new operational classification of the Conoidea. Journal of Molluscan Studies 77: 273-308.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4869229 lacertosus Gastropods of Australia