''Cymbiola rutila'', the blood-red volute, 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 ...

of large

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 Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 Volutidae, the volutes.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Cymbiola rutila (Broderip, 1826). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=714721 on 2020-10-04

Description

The shell attains a length of 74 mm.

Habitat

Volutes are predators that live in deep waters,
where they stalk and kill other molluscs.
Volutes do not have a free-swimming larval stage.
Their large egg capsules contain enough food
to allow the embryos to develop over several months.
What emerges from these capsules are tiny but fully formed shells.
Volutes tend to spend their life in colonies, and have small home ranges.

Distribution

This marine species occurs off

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

References

External links

Sowerby, G. B., I. (1844). Descriptions of six new species of Voluta. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1844: 149–152

Cox, J. (1873). Descriptions of new species of land and marine shells from Australia and the Solomon and Louisiade Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1873: 564-569

Crosse H. (1867). Diagnoses molluscorum novorum. Journal de Conchyliologie. 17: 444-449

Crosse H. (1880). Description de mollusques inédits, provenant de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et de la Nouvelle-Bretagne. Journal de Conchyliologie. 28: 142-149
Volutidae {{Volutidae-stub