''Drilliola loprestiana'' 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.or ...

Taxonomy

Figueira & Absalão (2010) used the name ''Drilliola pulchella'' (Verrill, 1880) for the species generally known as ''Drilliola loprestiana.'' They illustrated as "holotype Drilliola loprestiana (Calcara, 1841), MAL-1930, photo courtesy of Museo di Zoologia 'P. Doderlein', Palermo University", a specimen with a paucispiral protoconch, which is ''Drilliola emendata'' (Monterosato, 1872). This is questionable, because when establishing the genus Drilliola, Locard (1897: 213) provided notes from Monterosato (who then had purchased the Brugnone collection with Calcara's types), in which ''Drilliola loprestiana'' was clearly understood in the current acception (i.e. the species with a brown, multispiral protoconch). Most fortunately,

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...

art. 74.6. does not allow after year 2000 the fixation of a lectotype by inference of a "holotype", so this has no nomenclatural effect.

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 4 mm and 8.7 mm. The shell contains seven

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 with revolving carinae, the interstices longitudinally striate. The sinus iswide. The color of the shell is whitish, the apex brown-stained.G.W. Tryon (1884) Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species, vol. VI; Philadelphia, Academy of Natural Sciences
(described as ''Drillia loprestana'') The shell has a fusiform shape up to 7 mm high, with elevated spire and

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 ...

less than half the total height. 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 ...

is proportionally very large, with 4–5 convex whorls and a sculpture of axial riblets and a marked suprasutural keel. The teleoconch contains 3–4 whorls, with a sculpture of strong, elevated and acute spiral cords, narrower than the interspaces. The axial sculpture consists of fine raised threads which are very conspicuous in the interspaces and attenuated over the cords. The aperture is elongate. The outer lip is simple, with a deep U-shaped sinus situated next to the suture, then with convex profile in lateral view. The columellar edge simple, making an angle with the parietal edge. The colour of the protoconch is dark brown, of the teleoconch pure white.

Distribution

This species occurs from the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

to West Africa, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Adriatic Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean from Georgia, USA to Southern Brazil, in the Caribbean Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico.

References

* Bouchet P. & Warén A. (1980). ''Revision of the North-East Atlantic bathyal and abyssal Turridae (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Journal of Molluscan Studies Suppl. 8: 1–119 (December) page(s): 32–33 * Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). ''European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification''. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213
Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. ''Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico'', Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

External links

Serge GOFAS, Ángel A. LUQUE, Joan Daniel OLIVER,José TEMPLADO & Alberto SERRA (2021) - The Mollusca of Galicia Bank (NE Atlantic Ocean); European Journal of Taxonomy 785: 1–114
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drilliola Loprestiana loprestiana Gastropods described in 1841