''Eucithara typica'' 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 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 e ...

in the family

Mangeliidae Mangeliidae is a monophyletic family of small to medium-sized, predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. Bouchet, P. (2011). Mangeliidae P. Fischer, 1883. In: MolluscaBase (2016). Accessed through: World Regis ...

.WoRMS (2009). Eucithara typica (E. A. Smith, 1884). In: MolluscaBase (2017). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=433767 on 2017-05-22

Description

The length of the shell attains 6.5 mm, its diameter 2.5 mm. The shell has a slightly fusiform shape with a narrow base. Its color is white with spiral yellowish bands (5 in 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 ...

). The spiral banding is not very apparent. The shell contains 7

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, of which three smooth conical whorls in 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 ...

. The rest are strongly convex with a shallow suture. The 7 axial ribs (9-10 on the penultimate whorl) are high, strong and compressed and are narrower than the intervals, not becoming weak below suture. The ribs are crossed by fine, flattened lirae (12 on the penultimate whorl). Under a microscope some of the very small spiral lirations are seen to be minutely granulated. The inner lip is smooth or with small denticles or weak ridges. The ovate

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is narrow and measures about 5/11 the total length. The columella is straight and shows a 7-8 transverse folds. The outer lip is incrassate with 8 denticles. The wide

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is ...

is short and straight. Smith E.A. 1884a. ''Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidae in the British Museum''. Ann. Mag. Natural History 14: 317-329.
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Distribution

The type locality is unknown. The shown specimens were found off

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

References

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1-1295

Kilburn R.N. 1992. Turridae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of southern Africa and Mozambique. Part 6. Subfamily Mangeliinae, section 1. Annals of the Natal Museum, 33: 461–575
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10278072

typica The Typica ( Slavonic: ''изобразительныхъ', ''Izobrazítel'nykhə) is a part of the Divine Office of Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches that is appointed to be read on any day the Liturgy is celebrated with vespers, or ...

Gastropods described in 1884