Ancilla ovalis

Ancilla ovalis
Shell of Ancilla ovalis (specimen at the Natural History Museum, Rotterdam)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Ancillariidae
Genus:	Ancilla
Species:	A. ovalis
Binomial name
Ancilla ovalis (G.B. Sowerby II, 1859) [1]

Ancilla ovalis is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ancillariidae. ^[2]

Description

The length of the shell attains 10 mm.

(original description in Latin) The shell is oval, white, and ventricose. The spire is produced. The aperture is rather short and unidentate (one-toothed) anteriorly. The columellar varix is small and sulcate, with the inferior band indistinct.

Reminiscent of Ancilla castanea , this small, white, and ventricose shell differs notably in having a much shorter aperture and a very small varix, while its basal belt remains indistinct. ^[3]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Oman.

References

1. Sowerby G.B. II (1859). Monograph of the genus Ancillaria. Thesaurus Conchyliorum 3. World Register of Marine Species, Retrieved 28 April 2010.
2. Ancilla ovalis (G.B. Sowerby II, 1859) . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 28 April 2010.
3. Sowerby, G. B. II. (1859). Monograph of the genus Ancillaria. In thesaurus Conchyliorum, or monographs of Genera of Shells, vol. 3 (19). London: G. B. Sowerby II. Retrieved 1 August 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .

• Boyer F. (2015). Révision des Ancilla (Olividae: Ancillinae) de Masirah. Xenophora Taxonomy. 9: 3-14.