Hemilienardia iospira

Hemilienardia iospira
Original image of a shell of Hemilienardia iospira
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Conoidea
Family:	Raphitomidae
Genus:	Hemilienardia
Species:	H. iospira
Binomial name
Hemilienardia iospira (Hervier, 1896)
Synonyms [1]
Clathurella iospiraHervier, 1896 (original combination)

Hemilienardia iospira is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae. ^[1]

Description

The length of the shell attains 4 mm, its diameter 1.5 mm.

The small, fusiform shell is slightly elongated. The thickened shell is shiny, with a purple lilac coloration on the upper whorls, below the yellow protoconch. On the penultimate whorl and the body whorl, a light white band occupies the middle, becoming more intense on the dorsal part of the body whorl. At this point, the 5th and 6th ribs become discolored and turn white, especially at the opening of the outer lip, where the white coloring broadens and extends more or less. The shell contains 6 whorls. The 1½ embryonic yellow whorls are rounded and smooth. The next whorls are oblate-convex, compressed at the suture and very briefly angular at the top. The shell is reticulate (quite tight in the upper whorls, more expanded at the body whorl) with a granular, high mesh network produced by the intercrossing of vertical rounded, rather strong ribs and 3 strong decurrent cords. The body whorl is convex, slightly depressed toward the base, below the 5th and 6th ribs, which are stronger than the others. The aperture is elongated, narrow, with the same color as the shell. The columella is purplish. The outer edge is oblate-convex in the upper part but substantially swollen on the fifth and sixth ribs, which show a white appearance, and protrudes on the aperture. The aperture is thickened on the last rib, crenelated on the sharp outer lip and furnished inside with 5 denticulate folds. The subsutural sinus cuts rather deep into the thickening of the outer lip, where it expands and becomes rounded. ^[2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Lifou, New Caledonia.

References

1. MolluscaBase (2019). MolluscaBase. Hemilienardia iospira (Hervier, 1896). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=980550 on 2019-07-01
2. Hervier R.P. (1897), Descriptions d'espèces nouvelles provenant de l'Archipel de la Nouvelle Calédonie (suite); Journal de conchyliologie t.45 s.3 (1897) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• Wiedrick S.G. (2017). Aberrant geomorphological affinities in four conoidean gastropod genera, Clathurella Carpenter, 1857 (Clathurellidae), Lienardia Jousseaume, 1884 (Clathurellidae), Etrema Hedley, 1918 (Clathurellidae) and Hemilienardia Boettger, 1895 (Raphitomidae), with the descriptionof fourteen new Hemilienardia species from the Indo-Pacific. The Festivus. special issue: 2-45.

External links

• Tucker, J.K. (2004). "Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 682: 1–1295.