''Platycythara electra'' 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 Mangeliidae.
Description
The length of the shell attains 5.5 mm, its diameter 2 mm.
(Original description) The minute shell is waxen white, sometimes with faint purplish spiral bands. The protoconch contains 2½,
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. The protoconch is turbinate, the first two whorls are smooth, polished, brown. It is followed by 4½ subsequent reticulate whorls. These are axially minutely ribbed, the
sculpture passing into that of the normal subsequent whorls. The suture is distinct, not appressed. The spiral sculpture between the succeeding suture and the fasciole on the
spire, consists of four equal and equally spaced threads with slightly wider interspaces. Rarely the posterior thread is more prominent than the others. 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 ...
there are about nine threads, more adjacent as they approach 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 ...
which has about six more closely set. The axial sculpture consists of (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 ...
about 14) low narrow straight ribs extending from the suture to the siphonal canal with slightly narrower interspaces. There is no nodulation at the intersections with the spiral sculpture and the reticulations are squarish and deep. The
aperture is narrow. The
anal sulcus The anal sulcus, also called the anal sinus or anal canal, in Gastropods is a notch, a shelly tube at the top of the aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and fo ...
is shallow, rounded and conspicuous. The outer
lip is varicose, sharp edged, not lirate within. The inner lip is erased. The siphonal canal is hardly differentiated.
Dall (1919) Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean; Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56 (1920)
Distribution
This marine species was found was found off the Head of Concepcion Bay, Gulf of California
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Platycythara Electra
electra
Electra (; grc, Ήλέκτρα) is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, '' Electra'' by Sophocles and '' Electra'' by Euripides. She is also the centra ...
Gastropods described in 1919