''Inquisitor chocolatus'' 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

Pseudomelatomidae Pseudomelatomidae is a family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropods included in the superfamily Conoidea (previously Conacea) and part of the Neogastropoda ( Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In 1995 Kantor elevated the subfamily Pseudomelatominae ...

, the turrids and allies.

Description

The length of the shell attains 25 mm, its diameter 7 mm. The fusiform, shining shell contains 12

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 flo ...

s of which 2-3 are 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 ...

. These are smooth and convex. The subsequent whorls are concave at the top, then slightly convex. The sculpture consists of a few rounded ribs and a few inconspicuous, spiral striae. These number 9 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 ...

, becoming obsolete at the periphery. The aperture measures 2/5 of the total length. The outer lip is thin and extends in the middle. The sinus is rather deep. 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 ...

is oblique and recurved. The dark chocolate-colour, with the three yellowish spots which are slightly nodulous on each rib, and the smooth concavity at the upper part of the whorls are very distinctive characters.
Smith E.A. (1877). Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidae in the British Museum. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ser. 4, 19: 488-501

Distribution

This marine species occurs off

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 ...

and the Philippines.

References

External links

Smith, E. A. (1875). A list of the Gasteropoda collected in Japanese seas by Commander H. C. St. John, R. N. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ser. 4, 15: 414-427

Gastropods.com: ''Inquisitor chocolata''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inquisitor Chocolatus chocolatus Gastropods described in 1875