Stomatella auricula

Stomatella auricula, common name the false ear shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.[1]

Stomatella auricula
Drawing with three views of a shell of Stomatella auricula
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Vetigastropoda
Order: Trochida
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Trochidae
Genus: Stomatella
Species:
S. auricula
Binomial name
Stomatella auricula
Lamarck, 1816
Synonyms[1]
  • Gena auricula Lamarck, 1816
  • Gena strigosa A. Adams, 1850
  • Stomatella auriculata (misspelling)
  • Stomatella nigra Quoy & Gaimard, 1834

Description

The size of the shell varies between 5 mm and 20 mm. The shell has an elongated, rather narrow Haliotis-shape. It is smooth, polished, except for the growth lines near the lip. The body whorl is not spirally striate. Its color is golden, finely reticulated with light golden-brown, and showing several broad and narrow spiral crimson bands. The coloration is variable within wide limits. The color varies from carmine to white and even blackish, with more or less numerous white spots and often darker, articulated, spiral bands. The upper whorls are commonly of another colour than the body whorl. The outline is long and the polished surface show s no spiral striae except on the penultimate and beginning of the body whorl, where fine, scarcely impressed, close spiral lines can be seen under a strong lens. A few separated impressed striae extend along the columellar margin of the base. The columellar margin is slightly bowed or concave. The upper surface has subregular radiating striae. The ground color consists of a fine zigzagged mottling of whitish and light brown, through which the underlying nacre shines with a golden iridescence. There are several narrow spiral lines articulated remotely with white dots. And on the latter part of the whorl these are replaced by bands or lines of crimson. The aperture is oblong. Its posterior angle is filled by a pearly callus. The outer lip is sinuous. The lip margin is not bowed, but in one plane. There is a slightly projecting angle where the columella joins the basal lip. So that when lying on its face the peristome is in contact with a plane surface all the way around except the median part of the columellar lip.[2]

Distribution

This species occurs in the Red Sea and in the Indo-Pacific (Japan, Australia)

References
  1. Stomatella auricula Lamarck, 1816. Rosenberg, G. (2010). Stomatella auricula Lamarck, 1816. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=527557 on 27 February 2011 .
  2. H.A. Pilsbry (1890) Manual of Conchology XII; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1890 (described as Gena auricula)
  • Lamarck, J.B.P.A. de M. 1816. Liste des objets représentés dans les planches de cette livraison. pp. 1–16 in Lamarck, J.B.P.A. de M. Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature. Vers, coquilles, mollusques et polypiers. Paris : Agasse Part 23 pp. 1–16, pls. 391–488
  • Angas, G.F. 1865. On the marine molluscan fauna of the Province of South Australia, with a list of all the species known up to the present time, together with remarks on their habitats and distribution, etc. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1865: 155–"180"
  • Smith. Marine Mollusca. Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelago, p. 618, N° 271.
  • Cotton, B.C. 1945. Southern Australian Gastropoda. Part 1. Streptoneura. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 69(1): 150–171
  • Cotton, B.C. 1959. South Australian Mollusca. Archaeogastropoda. Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia. Adelaide : South Australian Government Printer 449 pp.
  • Sharabati, D. 1984. Red Sea Shells. London : KPI Limited 128 pp.
  • Hickman, C.S. & McLean, J.H. 1990. Systematic revision and suprageneric classification of trochacean gastropods. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Science Series 35: i–vi, 1–169
  • Wilson, B. 1993. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp.
  • Higo, S., Callomon, P. & Goto, Y. (2001) Catalogue and Bibliography of the Marine Shell-Bearing Mollusca of Japan. Gastropoda Bivalvia Polyplacophora Scaphopoda Type Figures. Elle Scientific Publications, Yao, Japan, 208 pp
  • "Stomatella auricula". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
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