''Brachycythara nanodes'' 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 Mangeliidae.
[Rosenberg, G. (2010). Brachycythara nanodes (Melvill, 1923). In: MolluscaBase (2017). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=532453 on 2017-04-05]
Description
The length of the shell attains 5.5 mm, the diameter 3 mm.
(Original description) The solid shell has an abbreviately fusiform shape. Its color is yellowish white. It contains 6
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 small, globular belong to 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 ...
. The remainder are ventricose, much impressed suturally. The spire shows longitudinal incrassate smooth ribs, the interstices crossed by coarse infrequent spiral lines. The whorls are very tumid, the spiral lines at the interstices coarse. The
aperture is oblong. The outer
lip is thickened. The sinus is very obscure. The columellar margin is inclined to obliquity. 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 extremely short.
Distribution
''B. nanodes'' can be found off the coast of
Cuba.
[Tunnell, John W., Jr., Felder, Darryl L., & Earle, Sylvia A., eds. ''Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota, Volume 1: Biodiversity.'' Texas A&M University Press, 2009. 666.]
References
External links
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295
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nanodes