''Epitonium scalare'', common name the precious wentletrap, is a

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

or ecto

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

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 marine gastropod with an operculum, in the family Epitoniidae, the wentletraps.Rosenberg, G. (2010). Epitonium scalare (Linnaeus, 1758). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207942 on 2010-11-22 In the 17th and 18th century this was once considered to be a very rare shell and specimens changed hands for large sums of money.

Johan de la Faille Johan de la Faille (1626 or 26 December 1628 – 14 October 1713) was a member of the vroedschap in Delft. As a supporter of prince William III of Orange, he was appointed in 1672, the Year of Disaster after the First Stadtholderless Period, w ...

and

Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...

owned a wentletrap.

Distribution

This species is distributed in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, in the Indian Ocean along

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, in the South West Pacific Ocean and along Fiji Islands and Japan.

Shell description

Adult shells of this species attain a length of between 25 mm to 72 mm."''Epitonium scalare'' (Linnaeus, 1758) The Precious Wentletrap"
Jacksonville Shell Club, accessed 12 March 2010. Many ''Epitonium'' species have shells that are very attractive and quite interesting in their structure. However this species is particularly striking, partly because it is very large compared with the great majority of other species within the genus, but also because the

whorls 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 ...

themselves do not touch and so the shell is held together only by the well-developed ribs or costae. File:Epitonium scalare.jpg File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - ZMA.MOLL.347109 - Epitonium scalare.jpg The

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

of ''Epitonium scalare'' has

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 ...

consisting of raised ribs that are known as ''costae''. Costae are a very common feature in shells of many '' Epitonium'' species.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2007926 Epitoniidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Distribution

Shell description

References

Further reading

External links