''Clelandella dautzenbergi'' 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 Trochidae, the top snails.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 9 mm and 15 mm, with a tiny

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 ...

of less than one

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 ...

and a teleoconch up to 7-8 whorls. The sculpture on the spire whorls consists of beaded spiral cords as wide as interspaces; one cord running just above the suture and continued on the peripheral angle 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 ...

is a duplicate with adapical component strongly beaded and abapical one less so. The abapical surface is imperforate, slightly convex and bearing 6-10 spiral cords, as wide as interspaces and not beaded. The shell colour varies from whitish to yellowish, with nacre showing through in some cases, broad brown flames starting from the suture on the early spire whorls; later whorls usually contain cords and a peripheral rim white articulated by white and brown streaks. The abapical cords also articulated by smaller white and brown flecks.

Distribution

This species occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa, Norway and Iceland.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clelandella Dautzenbergi dautzenbergi Gastropods described in 2005