''Margarites schantaricus'' 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 Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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

Margaritidae Margaritidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).Bouchet, P. (2012). Margaritidae. Accessed through: World Register ...

.Bouchet, P. (2012). ''Margarites schantaricus'' (Middendorff, 1849). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=556986 on 2012-09-01

Description

The height of the shell attains 21 mm, its diameter 22 mm. The thin, perforate shell has a conoid-convex shape. Its apex is obtuse, thin. It is dark slate-gray, buff around the umbilicus, with spots of dull black below the periphery. The convex

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 are encircled by stride. 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 ...

is large, scarcely angulated. The base of the shell is a little convex. The suture is distinct. The large aperture is suborbicular. The peristome is subcontinuous. The columella is subproduced at the base. The umbilicus is partly closed by the columellar lip. The line-like, elevated longitudinal striae of the sculpture are only weak, but are pretty sharply defined. They encircle the whorls at regular distances from each other, and are about one-fourth the width of their interstices. Sometimes there are still more delicate secondary threads between them. Of the first there are 10-12 on the penultimate whorl. Upon the base of the

the ridges become broader and broader. In the vicinity of the umbilicus they exceed double the breadth of the intervening furrows. The layer which this sculpture principally composes, is for the rest only about the thickness of a coat of varnish. And beneath it, it is showing very slight traces of longitudinal striae, appears silvery mother-of-pearl, which shines on the whorls of many specimens while still living. The most usual color is a dark slate-gray, through which the pearly layer, as through a heavy gauze, faintly shines. But if one still closer follows the color changes, we find upon the pearly layer a thick yellow one, visible also from outside on the base, for it extends over the whole umbilical tract as far as the inner lip. Usually this yellow tract merges into the ground color around its circumference. More seldom it is sharply defined. In some specimens this yellow color predominates over the whole shell. But usually it is covered by the slate color, which on the base through separated flames passes into the above-described yellow umbilical spot.Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
(described as ''Margarita schantarica'')

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

References

* Higo, S., Callomon, P. & Goto, Y. (1999). ''Catalogue and bibliography of the marine shell-bearing Mollusca of Japan''. Osaka. : Elle Scientific Publications. 749 pp. {{Taxonbar, from=Q6760227 schantaricus Gastropods described in 1849