''Glyphoturris eritima'' 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 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 Mangeliidae.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 4 mm and 8 mm. (Original description) The shell is large for the genus. It is composed of eight very angular

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, which form a sharp pointed, regularly tapered, turreted spire. 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 ...

is very small, regularly coiled, consisting of two and a half shining, light yellow whorls in striking contrast to the dull, rough surface peculiar to the rest of the shell. The first one and a half whorls are perfectly smooth, while the last one is crossed by minute, transverse riblets. The suture is marked by a conspicuous, rounded, undulating cingulus (= colored bands or spiral ornamentation) or thread on the preceding whorl. The sculpture consists of prominent, straight, angular, alternating ribs (nine on 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 ...

), forming a conspicuous node at the angle, extending from suture to suture. These, with their deeply concave interspaces, are crossed by unequal, conspicuous, well-rounded, granulated cinguli and microscopic threads. The first cingulus, defining the shoulder of the whorls, is double with the upper half slightly the larger, the sutural one is the next in size, while between these there are two still finer ones. These are unequally distant from each other, the first and second being much closer together than the others, and the intervening surfaces are covered by unequal, microscopic threads. Above the angle of the whorls the threads alone occur and number about nine. This inequality in the spiral sculpture makes the edges of the transverse ribs very rough and jagged. On the body whorl there are about thirteen cinguli below the shoulder, unequal in size and unequally separated, those on the

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 ...

larger and closer together than those just above it, while the fourth one below the angle is so prominent as to make a slight angle in the outline of the whorl. Below this angle the transverse ribs curve in toward the columella following the outline of the outer lip, and extend to the end of the siphonal canal, the curvature being most noticeable in a dorsal view. Very fine striae intersect the cinguli and the threads in the direction of the lines of growth, rendering them granular and give the appearance to the shell, when dry, of being covered with a fine, gray dust. The aperture is long, narrowly ovate, with a moderately long, rather narrow siphonal canal. The outer lip is not thickened, and shows a comparatively thin edge and a broad, moderately deep sinus extending from the suture to the angle. The columella is slightly curved. The inner lip is marked by a narrow stripe of conspicuous red enamel. The color of the shell is light yellow-brown. The interior of the aperture is of the same conspicuous red color as the inner lip. In young specimens this coloring is wanting.

Distribution

''G. eritima'' can be found in Atlantic, ranging from the North Carolina seaboard along the coast to Louisiana. and in the Gulf of Mexico. Fossils have been found in the Pliocene and the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

of the United States; age range: 2.588 to 0.781 Ma.A. J. W. Hendy, D. P. Buick, K. V. Bulinski, C. A. Ferguson, and A. I. Miller. 2008. Unpublished census data from Atlantic coastal plain and circum-Caribbean Neogene assemblages and taxonomic opinions.

References

Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 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. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

External links

*
Bouchet P., Kantor Yu.I., Sysoev A. & Puillandre N. (2011) A new operational classification of the Conoidea. Journal of Molluscan Studies 77: 273–308.
*
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glyphoturris Eritima eritima Gastropods described in 1885