''Colus pulcius'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Colidae The Colidae are a taxonomic family of large sea snails, belonging to the superfamily Buccinoidea. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Colidae Gray, 1857. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/ap ...

, the true whelks and the like.

Description

(Original description as ''Colus (Aulacofusus) capponius'' ) The shell is of moderate size and its height measures 40 mm. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is longer than the

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

. The shell is white, with a thin polished, oUvaceous periostracum. The shell contains more than five

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

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 ...

defective). The whorls are moderately rounded. The suture is distinct and deep. The axial

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consists of fine silky incremental striae, sometimes with a tendency to cause wrinkles near the suture. The spiral sculpture consists of (on the penultimate whorl about 17) regular narrow rather deep grooves with much wider flattish interspaces, uniformly covering the whole surface of the shell. The aperture is about twice as long as wide. The outer lip is retroactively arcuate behind and protractively anteriorly, not reflected. The inner lip shows a thin glaze. The columella is white. 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, wide and hardly reflected. Dall, W. H. (1919). Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean in the collection of the United States National Museum. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 56 (2295): 293-371.
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Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Bering Strait.

References

* Aurivillius, C. W. S. (1885). Översigt öfver de af Vega-Expeditionen insamlade arktiska Hafsmollusker. II. Placophora och Gastropoda. In: A. E. Nordenskjöld. Vega-Expeditionens Vetenskapliga Iakttagelser, Bearbetade af Deltagare i Resan och andra forskare. 4: 310–383, pls 12, 13 * Kosyan A.R. & Kantor Yu.I. (2013). Revision of the genus Aulacofusus Dall, 1918 (Gastropoda: Buccinidae). Ruthenica: The Russian Malacological Journal. 23(1): 1-33.

External links

Aurivillius, C. W. S. (1885). Översigt öfver de af Vega-Expeditionen insamlade arktiska Hafsmollusker. II. Placophora och Gastropoda. In: A. E. Nordenskjöld. Vega-Expeditionens Vetenskapliga Iakttagelser, Bearbetade af Deltagare i Resan och andra forskare. 4: 310–383, pls 12, 13
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colus pulcius Colidae Gastropods described in 1919