Erosaria erosa

Erosaria erosa
Erosaria erosa
Living Erosaria erosa, anterior part is to the left
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily: Cypraeoidea
Family: Cypraeidae
Genus: Erosaria
Species: E. erosa
Binomial name
Erosaria erosa
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms[1]

Cypraea erosa Linnaeus, 1758 (basionym)


Erosaria erosa, common name : the Gnawed or eroded cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.[1]


Contents

Description

These quite common shells reach on average 32–38 millimetres (1.3–1.5 in) of length, with a maximum size of 75 millimetres (3.0 in) and a minimum size of 15 millimetres (0.59 in). The dorsum is yellow-ocher or pale brown, with many small white spots. The extremities show a dark brown spots. A dark brown areas roughly rectangular are present on both sides close to the edges. The base is white to light beige, with thin trasversal stripes. At night in the living cowries the extremely papillose brownish mantle usually cover completely the shell, granting the camouflage.

Gallery

Erosaria erosa, dorsal view
Erosaria erosa chlorizans f. purissima, Vredenburg, E.W., 1919, anterior end towards the right - Australia
Erosaria erosa chlorizans f. purissima, Vredenburg, E.W., 1919, side view, anterior end towards the right

Distribution

Distribution map of Erosaria erosa

This species and its subspecies are distributed in the Indian Ocean along Aldabra, Chagos, the Comores, the East Coast of South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, the Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania, as well in the Western Pacific Ocean (Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, Polynesia and Hawaii).


Habitat

These cowries live in warm tropical waters, on shallow intertidal reef or in lagoons at about 2–10 metres (6 ft 7 in–32 ft 10 in) of depth. As they fear dailight, during the day they usually hide under rocks slabs with the mantle drawn into the shell, feeding only at dawn or dusk


Subspecies

There are three subspecies recognized :[1]

  • Erosaria erosa erosa, (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Erosaria erosa fuscocincta, Bozzetti, 2008
  • Erosaria erosa chlorizans, (Melvill, 1888)


References

  1. ^ a b c Erosaria erosa . WoRMS (2010). Erosaria erosa. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=216852 on 13 October 2010.


External links


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