''Eatoniella delli'' 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 ...

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 ...

mollusc 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 esti ...

in the family

Eatoniellidae Eatoniellidae, commonly known as eatoniellids, are a taxonomic family of minute sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cingulopsoidea The Cingulopsoidea is a superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the cl ...

. It was first described by Winston F. Ponder in 1965. It is endemic to the waters of New Zealand.

Taxonomy

The species was originally identified by the name ''Eatoniella (Cerostraca) delli'', and was named by Ponder after named after

Richard Dell Richard Kenneth Dell (11 July 1920 – 6 March 2002) was a New Zealand malacologist. Biography Dell was born in Auckland in 1920. As a young boy, he took an interest in shells, collecting them from the shores of Waitematā Harbour. He even ...

Description

''Eatoniella delli'' has a small conical dark-purple shell. The animal has colourless tentacles. The species measures 1.24 millimetres by 0.73 millimetres.

Distribution

Corallina officinalis at Kakamatua Point, Huia

The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to New Zealand. The holotype of the species was collected on 21 August 1963 on the Bream Tail at Mangawhai Heads in Northland by Ponder himself, who identified the species living on '' Corallina'' seaweeds.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6784364 Eatoniellidae Gastropods described in 1965 Gastropods of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Endemic molluscs of New Zealand Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Taxa named by Winston Ponder