''Kylix halocydne'' 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

Drilliidae The Drilliidae are a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small predatory sea snails with high-spired shells. They are classified as marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. This family has no s ...

that lives in a tropical climate, usually in the

Eastern Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

area.

Description

The shell grows to a length of 18 mm, its diameter 6 mm. (Original description) The slender shell is acute and rather flat-sided. Its color is purplish brown usually more or less obscured by a yellowish white glaze. The first turn of 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 smooth and inflated, the second has a peripheral keel and is followed by about 8½ subsequent

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 suture is strongly appressed with a smooth narrow band in front of it and behind the somewhat constricted fasciole Other spiral sculpture consists of sharply incised lines, four or five on the spire between the sutures, equal and with wider equal rounded interspaces, and about 24 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 ...

. The interspaces become more cord-like near 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 ...

and sometimes feebly nodulous where the lines cut the ribs. The axial sculpture consists of (on the penultimate whorl about 18) feeble narrow ribs, stronger near the apex, obsolete on the body whorl, with wider interspaces, beginning in front of the fasciole, hardly reaching the base, and protractively oblique. There are also fine sharp incremental lines, chiefly evident in the depressions, but here and there finely reticulating the interspaces. The aperture is rather wide. The rounded

anal sulcus The anal sulcus, also called the anal sinus or anal canal, in Gastropods is a notch, a shelly tube at the top of the aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and fo ...

is conspicuous. The outer lip is thin, prominently arcuate and smooth within. The inner lip shows a thin layer of brownish enamel, the edge raised anteriorly. The siphonal canal is distinct, slightly constricted, with a small concentrically striated siphonal fasciole.Dall (1919) Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean; Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56 (1920)
(described as ''Elaeocyma halocydne'')

Distribution

This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean from

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

to Panama.

References

* Turgeon, D.; Quinn, J.F.; Bogan, A.E.; Coan, E.V.; Hochberg, F.G.; Lyons, W.G.; Mikkelsen, P.M.; Neves, R.J.; Roper, C.F.E.; Rosenberg, G.; Roth, B.; Scheltema, A.; Thompson, F.G.; Vecchione, M.; Williams, J.D. (1998). ''Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: mollusks''. 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 26. American Fisheries Society: Bethesda, MD (USA). . IX, 526 + cd-rom pp. (look up in IMIS) page(s): 102
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kylix Halocydne halocydne Gastropods described in 1919