''Lophocochlias parvissimus'' 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 Tornidae.
[MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Lophocochlias parvissimus (Hedley, 1899). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=765226 on 2021-05-15]
Description
The height of the shell attains 1 mm, its diameter 0.9 mm.
The very small, white shell is umbilicate, turbinate, not nacreous, with a conic brownish
spire. The first
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 ...
appears to be smooth. On the second whorl fine radial folds or puckering appears below the
suture, becoming coarser on the following whorl. 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 ...
has six strong, smooth spiral keels, narrower than the intervals, which are flat and crossed by numerous retractively axial threads, which are much narrower than their intervals. Within the
umbilicus, two rather small spiral cords are visible. The
aperture is quite oblique and subcircular. The outer
lip is strengthened by a rounded external rib or varix a short distance behind the edge.
Pilsbry H.A. 1921. Marine mollusks of Hawaii, XIV-XV. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 72: 360–383
(described as ''Haplocochlias (Lophocochlias) minutissimus'' )
Distribution
This marine species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii and Tuvalu.
References
* Kay, E.A. (1979) ''Hawaiian marine shells. Reef and shore fauna of Hawaii. Section 4: Mollusca''. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publications, 64, xviii + 1–653
* Tröndlé, J. (1986). Premieres donnees en ecologie et faunistique sur la microfauna malacologique de Tahiti (Société - Polynésie française). Haliotis. 15, 61-72.
External links
Hedley C. (1899). The Mollusca of Funafuti. Part I - Gasteropoda. Memoirs of the Australian Museum. 3(7): 395-488, pl. 27
Rubio F. & Rolán E. (2015). The genus Lophocochlias Pilsbry, 1921 (Gastropoda, Tornidae) in the Indo-West Pacific. Novapex. 16(4): 105-120
parvissimus
Gastropods described in 1921
{{Tornidae-stub