Daphnella leucophlegma

Last updated

Daphnella leucophlegma
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Caenogastropoda
Clade: Hypsogastropoda
Clade: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Raphitomidae
Genus: Daphnella
Species:
D. leucophlegma
Binomial name
Daphnella leucophlegma
(Dall, 1881)
Synonyms [1]

Pleurotoma (Daphnella ?) leucophlegmaDall, 1881

Daphnella leucophlegma is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae. [1]

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 sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. While these definitions may seem adequate, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, and in a ring species. Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually, the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies.

Sea snail common name for snails that normally live in saltwater

Sea snail is a common name for snails that normally live in salt water, in other words marine gastropods. The taxonomic class Gastropoda also includes snails that live in other habitats, such as land snails and freshwater snails. Many species of sea snails are edible and exploited as food sources by humans.

Family is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy; it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as being the "walnut family".

Contents

Description

The length of the shell attains 10.25 mm, its diameter 4.25 mm.

(Original description) The thin, delicate shell is pearly white. It is acute, with nine rapidly enlarging whorls, roundly inflated (especially the last), which gives a turreted appearance to the spire . The protoconch is minute, glassy, smooth, simple. The nuclear whorls are not separated by any sudden change of character from the rest of the shell. The general sculpture consistis of numerous close-set (three or four to a millimeter) narrow plications extending from near the suture obliquely and flexuously across the whorls, in general correspondence with the lines of growth. On the body whorl they fade away anteriorly are and barely visible at the periphery. The lines of growth are generally pretty distinct. The whole shell is covered with fine, somewhat wavy, spiral grooves and intervening threads, not strong enough to give a rough appearance to the surface, and evenly distributed (twelve to sixteen in a millimeter). The aperture is large, semilunate. The outer lip is thin, simple, much arched and produced at the middle, and rounding broadly to the anterior end of the columella. The columella shows a slight callus, obliquely trimmed to a point, and slightly recurved anteriorly. The notch is obsolete, forming no distinct band, though indicated by the lines of growth and by a slight flattening of the whorl just in front of the distinct and well-marked suture.

Whorl (mollusc)

A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in of numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the ammonites.

Spire (mollusc)

A spire is a part of the coiled shell of molluscs. The spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl. Each spire whorl represents a rotation of 360°. A spire is part of the shell of a snail, a gastropod mollusc, a gastropod shell, and also the whorls of the shell in ammonites, which are fossil shelled cephalopods.

Protoconch

A protoconch 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 "nucleus". The protoconch may sometimes consist of several whorls, but when this is the case, the whorls show no growth lines.

Distribution

D. leucophlegma can be found in Caribbean waters, off the northwestern coast of Cuba. [2]

Cuba Country in the Caribbean

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometres (42,800 sq mi). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometres (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.

Related Research Articles

Daphnella antillana is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella canaliculata is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella corbicula</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella corbicula is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella cubana is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella dilecta is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella elata is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella elegantissima is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella eugrammata</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella eugrammata is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella lymneiformis</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella lymneiformis is a species of very small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella lyonsi, common name the sieve daphnella, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella margaretae is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella peripla is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella reticulosa</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella reticulosa is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella retifera</i> species of mollusc

D. retifera is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella semivaricosa</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella semivaricosa is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella concinna</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella concinna is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella</i> genus of molluscs

Daphnella is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella botanica</i> species of mollusc

Daphnella botanica, common names the botanic turrid and Botany Bay turrid, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

Daphnella degrangei is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Raphitomidae.

<i>Daphnella tagaroae</i>

Daphnella tagaroae is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.

References

  1. 1 2 Daphnella leucophlegma (Dall, 1881) . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 5 April 2010.
  2. Tunnell, John W., Jr., Felder, Darryl L., & Earle, Sylvia A., eds. Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota, Volume 1: Biodiversity. Texas A&M University Press, 2009. 667.