''Voluta virescens'',
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
the green music volute, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of medium-sized
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
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...
in the family
Volutidae
''Volutidae'', common name volutes, are a taxonomic family of predatory sea snails that range in size from 9 mm to over 500 mm. They are marine gastropod mollusks. Most of the species have no operculum.
Distribution
This family of sea snails ...
, the volutes.
Description
The maximum reported shell length for this species is 114 mm.
Original description of Voluta virescens lindae: "Shell small for genus, stocky with wide, sharp-angled shoulder; shoulder ornamented with 10 large, point knobs; body whorl below shoulder (anterior to) heavily sculptured with large, well-developed, axial plications and numerous large spiral cords; axial plications and spiral cords intersect to produce reticulated, fenestrate sculpture pattern; outer lip flaring; shell color bright canary yellow with band of large tan checkers just below shoulder and numerous, pale tan patches scattered over body whorl; bright yellow and tan base color overlaid with 8 evenly-spaced, thin bands of dark brown and yellow dashes; areas between dashed bands covered with dense masses of pale tan dots; area between suture and shoulder characteristically smooth, copiously covered with evenly-spaced tan dots; protoconch very large in proportion to shell size, protracted, cylindrical in shape; protoconch bright yellow; columella and aperture yellow; columella with 11 plications."
Subspecies
''Voluta virescens'' contains the following subspecies:
*''Voluta virescens lindae''
(Petuch, 1987)
*''Voluta virescens virescens''
Lightfoot, 1786
Distribution
Locus typicus of Voluta virescens lindae: "Off Bocas del Toro, Panama."
[Petuch, E.J. 1987-''New Caribbean Molluscan Faunas'', page 72. Publ: CERF]
References
Volutidae
Gastropods described in 1786
{{Volutidae-stub