''Rubritrochus pulcherrimus'' 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
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* Marine life
* Marine pollution
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* ...
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). ''Rubritrochus pulcherrimus'' (A. Adams, 1855). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=567199 on 2012-11-23]
Description
The height of the shell attains 14 mm, its diameter 16 mm. The solid, umbilicate shell has a conoidal shape. It is lusterless, white with a series of red spots below the
sutures, another beneath the periphery, and more or less closely red-dotted over the whole shell. The acute
spire is conical, acute, somewhat scalariform. The sutures are very deeply impressed. The about 6
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 very convex and nodulose below the sutures. The entire surface is covered with spiral lirae which are distinctly beaded on the base, less obviously so above. They number about 12 on the penultimate whorl, 20 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 ...
. The oblique
aperture is subcircular. The outer
lip is bevelled to an edge. The bevel is iridescent and pearly. The interior is very regularly lirate, the folds numbering about 14. The
columella is not thickened. It is arcuate, cut or excavated out, at its junction with the body produced forward in a white lobe, ending below in a denticle. The
umbilicus is deep, with a slight spiral rib near its opening, ending in the columellar tooth.
H. Pilsbry, Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
(described as ''Gibbula pulcherrima'' )
Distribution
This species occurs in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean off Mozambique.
References
* Fischer, P., 1874. ''Diagnoses specierum novarum''. Journal de Conchyliologie 22: 372-374
External links
To World Register of Marine Species
*
{{Commons category
pulcherrimus
Gastropods described in 1855