''Mohnia blakei'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Buccinidae, the true whelks.

Description

The length of the shell attains 16 mm, its width 8 mm. (Original description of ''Bela blakei'') Shell of good size for the genus, stout, fusiform, with turreted spire and shouldered whorls, having a circle of nodules just below the suture and another at the shoulder. The shell contains 5½

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, of which three belong to 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 ...

, which is rather large, regularly coiled, the apical whorl rather small, a little depressed, white and polished. The second whorl is also polished, but crossed by very fine lines of growth. The last nuclear whorl has about five raised, revolving cinguli in addition to the lines of growth. The lower whorls are crossed by numerous rather straight, obtuse ribs, separated by intervals of about their own breadth. Of these there are about twenty-four 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 ...

. Each of these ribs rises into a rounded, rather prominent tubercle at the shoulder. They are faintly marked and oblique on the concave subsutural band, but form another circle of obtuse tubercles just below the suture. Anteriorly they fade out at about the middle of the body whorl. The suture itself is impressed and undulated. The surface, both of the ribs and intervals, is covered by close but distinct lines of growth. At the shoulder a distinct revolving carina connects the tubercles together. Below this there are pretty regular, well-developed revolving cinguli, which are rounded and separated by rather wide intervals, and cross both ribs and interspaces, but in crossing the ribs they become more prominent and form oblong nodules on the upper part of the whorl. On the lower part of the whorl and siphon they are a little wider, more spaced, and roughened only by the raised lines of growth. On the penultimate whorl there are three or four revolving cinguli below the carina. The subsutural band is strongly marked, broad and decidedly concave, and is covered with slightly curved, oblique lines of growth and faint ribs, and has a single, small, revolving cingulus in the middle. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is long, ovate-fusiform, angulated at the outer lip, and with an acute posterior angle; anteriorly it is narrowed into the moderately long straight canal. The posterior sinus is nearly obsolete. The columella is straight, with a sinuous inner margin. The operculum is greenish yellow, ovate, obtusely rounded posteriorly, subspiral anteriorly, with the nucleus near the inner anterior edge. The epidermis is pale yellow, thin, closely adherent. The color of the shell within is bluish white. The nucleus is white. Verrill, A. E. (Addison Emery),, Catalogue of marine mollusca added to the fauna of New England during the past ten years; Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. 3rd volume (1885)
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean on shallow

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

sediments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohnia Blakei Buccinidae Gastropods described in 1885