Xanthodaphne xanthias

Xanthodaphne xanthias
Original image of the shell and protoconch of Xanthodaphne xanthias
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Clade:	Caenogastropoda
Clade:	Hypsogastropoda
Clade:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Conoidea
Family:	Raphitomidae
Genus:	Xanthodaphne
Species:	X. xanthias
Binomial name
Xanthodaphne xanthias (Watson, 1886)
Synonyms [1]
Pleurotoma (Thesbia) xanthiasWatson, 1886

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

Description

The length of the shell attains 19 mm, its diameter 10 mm.

(Original description) The shellis oval, biconical, and a little tumid. The spire is high and conical, the base long and pointed. The surface is smooth and feebly spiralled, and white.

Sculpture : Longitudinals—there are fine hair-like lines of growth, which are slightly puckered below the suture. Spirals—there is a blunt carination in the middle of the whorls, below which the surface is scored with flat threads parted by slight irregular lines. Above the keel on the shoulder these spirals are wholly absent.

The colour of the shell is white, with a glossy surface.

The spire high and conical. The protoconch has probably 3 to 3½ whorls, but the extreme tip is broken and only 2 remain. They are yellow and conical, and are microscopically scored by minute narrow raised lines which are straight above, but below slope very obliquely to the left. There are 4½ whorls below the apical nucleus. They are feebly angulated in the middle. The body whorl is large, tumid, and has a swollen base prolonged into a broad triangular lop-sided snout, which is not at all emarginate in front. The suture is very slight indeed, but distinct. The aperture is narrowly oblong, pointed above, and having no siphonal canal in front. The outer lip is thin, flatly arched, with a deep broad sinus which lies up at the very suture, and with no shelf at the insertion. Below the sinus the edge of the lip sweeps forward in a great wing-like curve. There is a mere thin glaze on the body of the inner lip. Its line is barely convex on the body, subangulatedly concave at its junction with the columella, which is longish, oblique to the left, and slightly truncate at the point. ^[2]

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to New Zealand and occurs off North Island.

References

1. Xanthodaphne xanthias (Watson, 1886) . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 5 April 2010.
2. Watson R.B. (1886). Report on the Scaphopoda and Gasteropoda collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology. 15 (part 42): 1–756, pls 1–50 - page 334

• Powell, A.W.B. 1979 New Zealand Mollusca: Marine, Land and Freshwater Shells, Collins, Auckland
• Spencer, H.G., Marshall, B.A. & Willan, R.C. (2009). Checklist of New Zealand living Mollusca. Pp 196–219. in: Gordon, D.P. (ed.) New Zealand inventory of biodiversity. Volume one. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch.

External links

• Tucker, J.K. (2004). "Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 682: 1–1295.
• Spencer H.G., Willan R.C., Marshall B.A. & Murray T.J. (2011). Checklist of the Recent Mollusca Recorded from the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone