''Eucithara isophanes'' is a small

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 in the family Mangeliidae.

Description

The length of the shell attains 4.5 mm, its diameter 2 mm. The small, short shell has an oval shap with a scalar spire. It is distinctly angular in the upper part of the whorls. The shell has a translucent crystal white color. It is adorned with fairly high longitudinal ribs, well rounded, leaving between them an interval equal to twice their thickness. Originating at the suture, they descend obliquely, followed by accentuating the angulation of the whorls and go in describing a very flexuous contour to the siphonal canal where they are concentrated. These chords are surmounted by decurrent, numerous and very thin costae, which, evenly spaced, traverse the whole height of the whorls without being accompanied by intermediate striations. The shell contains 6

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. The two embryonic ones are rounded, smooth and of a white shiny horny color; The whorls of the spire are staggered in a scalarly manner and separated by an undulating linear suture. In their upper part, they are plane, but then slope downward. They then become strongly angulate, below of which they offer a flat to convex profile, and are compressed by the lower suture. The

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 ...

measures 3/5 of the total height;. After having undergone a more obtuse angle than that of the upper whorls, the body whorl presents (on the opposite side to the outer lip) a more convex profile, weakly depressed below the middle. The aperture is oblique, narrowly oblong, approximately equal to half the total height. The peristome is continuous. The columella is smooth, obliquely directed and weakly concave in its upper part. The outer lip, seen from the front, is angular at the top and presents below the angle an oblique flat to convex profile. The sinus, located between the suture and the angulation, is rounded, obliquely and deeply lodged in the recess of the last rib.Hervier, J. 1898. ''Descriptions d'espèces nouvelles de Mollusques provenant de l'Archipel de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.'' Journal de Conchyliologie 45: 165-195, 249-266, pls 7-8
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Distribution

This marine species occurs off

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

and the Loyalty Islands

References

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1-1295.
*
Virginie, et al. "Mollusca of New Caledonia." Compendium of marine species of New Caledonia. Documents Scientifiques et Techniques II7, 2nd edn. IRD, Nouméa (2007): 199-254
{{Taxonbar, from=Q30681861 isophanes Gastropods described in 1897