Turricula nelliae

Turricula nelliae
Apertural view of a shell of Turricula nelliae
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Conoidea
Family:	Clavatulidae
Genus:	Turricula
Species:	T. nelliae
Binomial name
Turricula nelliae (Smith E. A., 1877)
Synonyms [1]
Pleurotoma nelliaeSmith E. A., 1877

Turricula nelliae is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clavatulidae. ^{[1] [2]}

There is one subspecies: Turricula nelliae spuria(Hedley, 1922) (synonyms: Pleurotoma tuberculataGray, 1839, Pleurotoma punctataReeve, 1845; Inquisitor spuriusHedley, 1922). It differs from Turicula nelliae nelliae by a flexed anterior canal and having 14–17 peripheral nodes per whorl.

Description

Turricula nelliae spuria(Hedley, 1922)

The size of an adult shell varies between 30 mm and 40 mm.

The turreted shell has a fusiform shape. It contains 12 strongly excavated whorls. A species of charming form and purity, with whorls strongly excavated above, and a row of upright oblong tubercles encircling their bases, and two small contiguous keels around them just below the suture. The basal spirals are numerous and plain. The aperture together with the siphonal canal equals almost half the length of the shell. The anterior canal is straight. The upper part of the thin outer lip is slightly incised. The siphonal canal is slightly oblique and recurved backwards. ^[3]

Distribution

This species has a wide distribution in the Indian Ocean, and from China to Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia).

References

1. Turricula nelliae (Smith E. A., 1877) . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 4 April 2010.
2. P. Bouchet; Yu. I. Kantor; A. Sysoev & N. Puillandre (2011). "A new operational classification of the Conoidea (Gastropoda)". Journal of Molluscan Studies . 77 (3): 273–308. doi: 10.1093/mollus/eyr017 .
3. E.A. Smith (1877), Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidae in the British Museum; The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany,... ser.4 vol. 19 p. 489

• Miller, John A. "The feeding and prey capture mechanism of Turricula nelliae spurius (Hedley)(Gastropoda: Turridae)." The Marine Flora and Fauna of Hong Kong and Southern China II: Behaviour, morphology, physiology and pollution 3 (1990): 979.
• Taylor, John D. "The anterior alimentary system and diet of Turricula nelliae spurius (Gastropoda: Turridae)." Proc. Second Int. Workshop on the Malacofauna of Hong Kong and Southern China. Hong Kong Univ. Press, Hong Kong. Eds. B. Morton, and D. Dudgeon. 1985.
• Liu J.Y. [Ruiyu] (ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. China Science Press. 1267 pp.

External links

• Indo-Pacific Mollusca; Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Delaware Museum of Natural History v. 2 no. 9–10 (1968–1969)