Natica Temporal range: | |
---|---|
| |
Several views of a shell of Natica arachnoidea | |
![]() | |
A shell of Natica limbata | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
Order: | Littorinimorpha |
Family: | Naticidae |
Subfamily: | Naticinae |
Genus: | Natica Scopoli, 1777 |
Type species | |
Natica vitellus vitellusLinnaeus, 1758 | |
Synonyms [1] | |
|
Natica is a genus of small to medium-sized predatory sea snails, marine gastropods in the subfamily Naticinae of the family Naticidae, the moon snails. The genus was erected by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777. [1]
The genus is known from the Eocene to the Recent periods (age range: 37.2 to 0.012 million years ago). [2] [3]
The shell is subglobose or obovate, rarely somewhat depressed. The spire is short. The body whorl is enlarged. The aperture is entire, semicircular, with an oblique, edentate, callous columellar side. The prominent umbilicus is deep, often wide, well separated between the contracted columellar margin and the spiral, often thickened base of the columella. A small pit near the callosity is almost distinct.
The peristome is sharp, smooth on the interior. The large operculum is calcareous, fully attached to the surface, sometimes sculpted with ridges, sometimes flattened, with the spiral located anteriorly and internally. [4]
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) includes the following species with accepted names in the genus Natica [5]