''Monodonta nebulosa'' 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 Trochidae, the top snails.
Description
The shell size varies between 15 mm and 22 mm, the body volume is 1.46 cm^3, and the wet body mass is 2.55 grams. The species is a
grazer, and eats mostly on low growing organisms, for example: grasses,
forbs
A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...
or
algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
.
Distribution
This species is distributed around the
Red Sea and the Eastern
Indian Ocean.
References
* Vine, P. (1986). ''Red Sea Invertebrates''. Immel Publishing, London. 224 pp
* Bosch D.T., Dance S.P., Moolenbeek R.G. & Oliver P.G. (1995) ''Seashells of eastern Arabia''. Dubai: Motivate Publishing. 296 pp.
* 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
*
nebulosa
Molluscs described in 1775
{{Trochidae-stub