''Famelica catharinae'' 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 ...
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 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
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
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Raphitomidae
Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". ''Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 39 ...
.
The species was named for
Katharine J. Bush, an American malacologist.
Description
The length of the shell attains 23 mm, its diameter 6.5 mm.
(Original description) The thin, white shell is translucent. It is very slender, elongated, narrow, fusiform, with a long, narrow, tapered, nearly straight
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 ...
, and a tall, gradually tapered, acute
spire
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...
. It contains eight, evenly rounded
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 ...
. but not very convex, with a distinct, flattened, smooth subsutural band. The suture is well marked, but not deep, decidedly oblique. The surface is everywhere covered with conspicuous, regular, raised, revolving cinguli, in some parts with one or more smaller revolving lines in the spaces between them. The cinguli are obtusely rounded and entirely smooth, as well as the spaces between them, which are of about the same breadth. On the penultimate whorl there are about fifteen cinguli, and on the upper whorls five or six. The large, acute, brown
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 ...
consists of about 4½ whorls, which increase regularly. The apical whorl is small, rounded and prominent. The others are distinctly carinated and shouldered. The portion above the shoulder slopes at a wide angle and is a little convex and nearly smooth, except close to the carina. The part below the carina of the shoulder is flattened and nearly straight, or even narrowed toward the suture, and crossed by regularly spaced, thin, elevated transverse ribs, with wider intervals. These ribs extend a little above the carina and then fade out. They run nearly straight across all the whorls, except the first two, where they are more or less oblique. There is usually, on the larger whorls, a raised revolving line, or small carina, just above the suture. The
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 very elongated and narrowed at the base of the siphonal canal, which is much prolonged and slender, a little curved, owing to a slight sinuous curvature of the columella-margin. The posterior notch in the outer
lip
The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...
is rather deep and narrow, situated immediately at the suture. The subsutural band, corresponding to it, shows faint cm'ved lines of growth, parallel with its margin. The color of the shell is white, except the protoconch, which is pale chestnut-brown.
Distribution
''F. catharinae'' can be found in Atlantic waters, ranging from the coast of
south to
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
[Tunnell, John W., Jr., Felder, Darryl L., & Earle, Sylvia A., eds. ''Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota, Volume 1: Biodiversity.'' Texas A&M University Press, 2009. 668.]
References
* Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (eds), European Register of Marine Species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Patrimoines Naturels. 50: 180-213.
* Sysoev A.V. (2014). Deep-sea fauna of European seas: An annotated species check-list of benthic invertebrates living deeper than 2000 m in the seas bordering Europe. Gastropoda. Invertebrate Zoology. Vol.11. No.1: 134–155
External links
*
Rosenberg, G.; Moretzsohn, F.; García, E. F. (2009). Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in: Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Famelica Catharinae
catharinae
Gastropods described in 1884