''Naria miliaris'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the millet cowry or the inocellate cowry or the military cowry, 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 cowry, 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 Cypraeidae, the cowries.

Description

The shells of these very common cowries reach on average of length, with a minimum size of and a maximum size of . The dorsum surface of these smooth and shiny shells is generally pale brown or yellowish, with several small white spots. The base is white or pink, with several fine teeth. In the living cowries the mantle is pale brown and greyish, with long tree-shaped sensorial papillae. This species is quite similar to ''

Naria lamarckii ''Naria lamarckii'', common name the Lamarck's cowrie, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. Description The shells of these common cowries reach on average of length, with a min ...

,'' but in ''Naria miliaris'' the edges of the shell are white, without any spots.

Distribution

This species is distributed in the Indian Ocean along Madagascar and Tanzania and in the western Pacific Ocean to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, along

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, East

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Taiwan, Vietnam, East Thailand, East Malaysia,

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

, North Borneo, Java, Philippines and northwestern

References

* Burgess, C.M. (1970). The Living Cowries. AS Barnes and Co, Ltd. Cranbury, New Jersey * Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). Mollusques testaces marins de Madagascar. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III * Verdcourt, B. (1960). The cowries of the East African Coast: Supplement III. JEANHS XXIII (104): 281-285.

External links

Biolib

Cypraeidae Gastropods described in 1791 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin {{Cypraeidae-stub