''Turbo fluctuosus'', common name the wavy turban, 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 ...

, 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 Turbinidae.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 25 mm and 86 mm. The short, solid, imperforate shell has an ovate-conic shape with a conic spire. Its color pattern is olivaceous, green, brown or grayish, longitudinally strigate or tessellate with white. The five

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 generally angulate and nodose at the shoulder, with a varying number of coarse subnodose revolving carinae and of intermediate lirulae upon the median and lower portions of 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 large aperture is iridescent within. The white columella is wide, and slightly produced at the base. It has a longitudinal excavation or groove upon its face. The operculum is rounded oval, with four whorls and a subcentral nucleus. Its outer surface is convex. The central portion is elevated, white, sharply granulate, and bounded by a wide groove which connects with a deep central pit by a lunate channel. Outside of this is a zone bearing about six narrow concentric beaded green lirulae, which are not continuous over the side of increment.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean from Baja California peninsula to Peru and off the Galapagos archipelago.

References

* Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2003). ''A Conchological Iconography: The Family Turbinidae, Subfamily Turbininae, Genus Turbo''. Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany. * Williams, S.T. (2007). ''Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae).'' Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592.

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3174666 fluctuosus Gastropods described in 1828