''Borsonella barbarensis'' 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

(Original description) The solid shell consists of six or more

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 apex is decollated. The periostracum is greenish olive over a white substratum, yellowish on the columella. The suture is distinct with a convex spiral band between it and the fasciole. The spiral sculpture shows a pronounced keel in front of the fasciole, on the upper part of the spire this keel may be more or less undulated. In front of the keel the surface is retractively somewhat irregularly obliquely grooved, with wider flattish interspaces upon which is a minute protractively looped sculpture giving a vermicular aspect to the surface under a magnifier The ovate aperture is simple. The outer lip is thin and sharp. The anal sulcus is wide and moderately deep. The columella is straight, attenuated in front, the plait hidden behind it. 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 and wide, the operculum missing. The height of shell is 29 mm; 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 ...

, 20 mm; the diameter is 12 mm. In this species the plait on the columella is generally hidden behind the columella so as to be invisible from a front view of the aperture.Dall (1919) Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean; Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56 (1920 pp. 37–38)
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Description

Distribution

References

External links