''Xanthodaphne pompholyx'' 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 ...

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 Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Raphitomidae Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". ''Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 39 ...

.MolluscaBase (2019). MolluscaBase. Xanthodaphne pompholyx (Dall, 1889). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=709382 on 2019-03-14

Description

The length of the shell attains 12 mm. (Original description) Thethin, inflated, polished shell shows a brown reticulated

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 ...

of three

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, and five subsequent whorls. The color is yellowish white, with faint axially directed streaks and blotches of olive brown, and articulating dots of the same in the region of 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 ...

. The spiral

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consists of faint close-set scratches or half-obsolete minute threads more or less visible over the whole surface, and 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 ...

in front of the fasciole about twenty-five channelled sharply cut grooves separated by considerably wider flat interspaces. The grooves are nearer together on the siphonal canal, and the interspaces there become rounded, almost threadlike. The transverse sculpture consists of, on the fasciole, numerous little-elevated arched regularly-spaced ripples, with slightly wider interspaces. These fade away in front of the fasciole, or appear only as irregularities of growth which punctuate the channels but are obsolete on the interspaces. The whorls are rounded, fasciole only slightly excavated, the posterior edge appressed at the suture. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is large. The outer

lip The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...

is rather straight in the middle, contracted suddenly to form the siphonal canal, the edge sharp, the sculpture transvisible, the notch shallow and its corners rounded off. The

columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the wo ...

is straight, simple, rather long. The siphonal canal is distinct, not recurved. The periphery of the body whorl is a little flattened. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College vol. 18 (1889)

Distribution

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of this marine species was found off

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

at a depth of 256 m.

References

External links

Gastropods.com: ''Xanthodaphne pompholyx''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xanthodaphne Pompholyx pompholyx Gastropods described in 1889