''Trophonopsis barvicensis'' 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 Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Description

The white shell has a fusiform shape. It measures up to 15 mm, with a moderately high spire of shouldered

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 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 ...

is small and consists of little more than one whorl. The teleoconch shows a sculpture of axial lamellae and spiral cords (4–5 on penultimate whorl) forming a coarse lattice. The outer lip is simple, not thickened but with the termination of cords reflected inside as folds. 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 ...

is long and delicate, often curved, and widely open. The living animal is commonly covered by a sponge, which fills in the depressions of the sculpture.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in European waters (from Iceland and northern Norway to Morocco); in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores (Some forms possibly attributed to this species); in the Mediterranean Sea (only in the

Alboran Sea The Alboran Sea (from Arabic , ''al-Baḥrān'') is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, w ...

)

References

External links

Johnston G. (1825). ''Contributions to the British fauna''. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 13: 218–222
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trophonopsis Barvicensis Trophonopsis Gastropods described in 1825