''Turricula ceylonica'' 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

Clavatulidae Clavatulidae is a taxonomic family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. The family is not well differentiated morphologically. Clavatulidae was raised, based on cladistic analysis, from subfamily to the family ...

Description

The length of the shell attains 9 mm, its diameter 6 mm. The fusiform shell is grayish-white with red spots within the suture and elongated flammules 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 shell contains 10

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 of which 1 in the vitreous, convex

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 ...

. The whorls of the teleoconch are slightly concave below the distinct suture. The entire surface of this species consists of spiral contiguous series of granules. The third row from the top of the whorls is smaller than the others and produces a depression in that region. The columella is slightly twisted. The length of the aperture equals almost half the length of the shell. The thin outer lip stands out in the middle. 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 moderately long and slightly curved.E.A. Smith (1877), Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidae in the british Museum; The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany,... ser.4 vol. 19 p. 489
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Indian Ocean off

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and Southern India.

References

External links

Biolib.cz: image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turricula Ceylonica ceylonica Gastropods described in 1877