''Monodonta confusa'' 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 Trochidae, the top snails.Bouchet, P. (2012). ''Monodonta confusa'' Tapparone-Canefri, 1874. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=546923 on 2012-11-23

Description

The height of the shell attains 20 mm, its diameter 18 mm. This species is shaped like ''

Monodonta labio ''Monodonta labio'', common name the toothed top shell or the lipped periwinkle, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails. Distribution This species occurs in the Indian Ocean off Madaga ...

''. The color is pink, longitudinally clouded with dusky. The penultimate

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 ...

bears 5 or 6, the last 13 or 14 spiral ridges. The second one from the suture is very narrow. The others are subequal, but become smaller beneath. There are no lirulae intercalated between the ridges on the last whorl, as is usually the case in ''Monodonta labio''. And the ridges are very conspicuously and regularly cut into oblong subquadrangular or lozenge-shaped grains by vertical impressions as deep as the interliral groove. The basal tooth of the columella is smaller and more acute than in a typical ''Monodonta labio''.Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This marine species occurs off

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Singapore and the Philippines.

References

* Donald K.M., Kennedy M. & Spencer H.G. (2005) ''The phylogeny and taxonomy of austral monodontine topshells (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Trochidae), inferred from DNA sequences''. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37: 474-483.

External links

Biodiversity Heritage Library (5 publications)

Encyclopedia of Life

GenBank (2 nucleotides; 1 proteins)

World Register of Marine Species
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q6901529 confusa Gastropods described in 1874 Marine gastropods