''Lucerapex casearia'' 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

Turridae Turridae is a taxonomic family name for a number of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. MolluscaBase (2018). Turridae H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 (1838). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Specie ...

, the turrids. The subspecies ''Lucerapex casearia regilla'' Iredale, 1936 is a synonym of ''

Pagodaturris regilla ''Pagodaturris'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Clavatulidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Pagodaturris Kantor, Fedosov & Puillandre, 2018. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http: ...

'' (Iredale, 1936) (basionym)

Description

The length of the shell attains 21 mm. (Original description) The thin, slender shell has a fusiform shape. The spire is keeled and turreted. The base is contracted. The shell consists of seven

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, including a 1½ whorls 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 ...

, parted by linear rather oblique impressed sutures. The colour varies from pearl grey to pale orange, usually cheese colour. Sculpture: the paucispiral protoconch is glassy with rounded whorls, the adult smooth and somewhat glossy though duller than the protoconch. The periphery is sharply produced into a projecting keel. The fasciole is set with pointed radiating tubercles, of which the penultimate whorl bears eighteen. These tubercles continue upwards, diminishing proportionately to the protoconch. But downwards they degenerate 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 ...

to imbricating scales. The unarmed keel slightly rises at its termination, bringing the shelf above it nearer to the horizontal. The fasciole ends in a deep and narrow slit. The

anal sinus The anal sinuses (rectal sinuses) are furrows in the anal canal, that separate the anal columns from one another. The anal sinuses end below in small valve-like folds, termed anal valves The anal valves are small valve-like folds at the lower ends ...

is spout-like. 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 open, produced, bent a little to the right. Under the lens, delicate growth lines appear which diverge acutely above and below the keel, crossing the base they are flexed. The aperture is narrowly pyriform, a callus spread on the inner lip. Hedley, C.; Petterd, W. F. (1906). Mollusca from three hundred fathoms off Sydney. Records of the Australian Museum. 6(211): pls.
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Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off Sidney, New South Wales.

References

* Laseron, C. 1954. Revision of the New South Wales Turridae (Mollusca). Australian Zoological Handbook. Sydney : Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales pp. 56, pls 1–12. * Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.

External links

Hedley, C. 1922. A revision of the Australian Turridae. Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213-359, pls 42-56
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucerapex Casearia casearia Gastropods described in 1906 Gastropods of Australia