Prosipho mundus

Prosipho mundus
Shell of Prosipho mundus (specimen at the Smithsonian Institution)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Prosiphonidae
Genus:	Prosipho
Species:	P. mundus
Binomial name
Prosipho mundus E.A. Smith, 1915
Synonyms
Prosipho macleaniHedley, 1916 Prosipho madiganiHedley, 1916 (superseded combination) Prosipho mundus var. macleaniHedley, 1916 (junior subjective synonym)

Prosipho mundus is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Prosiphonidae, the true whelks. ^[1]

Description

The length of the shell attains 7.5 mm, its diameter 3.5 mm.

(Original description) The shell is shortly fusiform and has a dirty whitish color. It is composed of 5.5 whorls.

The first 1.5 whorls are smooth and convex, forming a rounded, nipple-like apex. The next three whorls have four spiral lirae (ridges), while the body whorl has thirteen. The two or three uppermost lirae on the body whorl, like those on the spire, are finely nodular where they are crossed by approximately twenty longitudinal threads on the penultimate whorl. The entire surface is covered with fine growth lines.

The aperture is pear-shaped and smooth and white inside, measuring less than half the length of the shell. The columella is arched at the top and oblique at the bottom, and the anterior canal is moderately broad, oblique, and slightly curved back. ^[2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

References

1. Prosipho mundus Smith, 1915 . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 17 April 2010.
2. Smith, E. A. (1915). Mollusca. Part I. - Gastropoda Prosobranchia, Scaphopoda and Pelecypoda. British Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition, Natural History Reports (Zoology). 2(4): 61-112, pls 1-2 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .

• Engl, W. (2012). Shells of Antarctica. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 402 pp.

External links

• Hedley, C. (1916). Mollusca. Scientific Reports of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911–1914. Under the Leadership of Sir Douglas Mawson, D. Sc., B. E., Scientific Results Series C.-Zoology and Botany, 4, 1–80, 9 pl