Vexillum bipartitum

Vexillum bipartitum
Shell of Vexillum bipartitum (specimen at MNHN, Paris)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Turbinelloidea
Family:	Costellariidae
Genus:	Vexillum
Species:	V. bipartitum
Binomial name
Vexillum bipartitum (E. A. Smith, 1844)
Synonyms
Turricula (Callithea) bipartitaE. A. Smith, 1884 (basionym) Turricula bipartitaE. A. Smith, 1884 (original combination) Vexillum (Pusia) bipartitum(E. A. Smith, 1884)

Vexillum bipartitum is a species of small sea snail, marine gastropod mollusk in the family Costellariidae, the ribbed miters. ^[1]

Description

The length of the shell attains 6 mm, its diameter 2 mm.

(Original description) The shell is small and fusiformly ovate. It has the spire and the upper half of the body whorl white, and the lower half stained with a dirty pale flesh-coloured band beneath and pinkish white at the extremity. The shell consists of eight whorls. The three protoconch whorls are smooth and convex. The rest are a little convex at the sides, longitudinally costate and spirally grooved. The re are 14 ribs on the penultimate whorl, attenuated inferiorly on the last, and not quite cut across by tho transverse sulci. These are deepish, not quite so broad as the interstices, numbering from 6 to 7 on the penultimate whorl and about 16 on the body whorl. The aperture is small, occupying less than half the length of the shell. The columella is pale pink, covered with a thin callus bearing four oblique plaits. The outer lip is thin, and armed within with about eight thread-like lirae. ^[2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Indian Ocean off Réunion and Tanzania; also off the Philippines, Japan, Cook Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Mariana Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Guam and the Solomon Islands.

References

1. Vexillum bipartitum (E. A. Smith, 1844) . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 24 April 2010.
2. Smith, E. A. (1884). Mollusca. pp. 34-116; 487-508 in: Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of H. M. S. Alert 1881-2. Part I. The collections from Melanesia; Part II. Collections from the western Indian Ocean. London: The Trustees [of the British Museum

• Drivas, J. & Jay, M. (1988). Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'Île Maurice. Collection les beautés de la nature. Delachaux et Niestlé: Neuchâtel. ISBN 2-603-00654-1. pp. 1–160.