Umbonium zelandica

Taxobox
name = "Umbonium zelandica"


status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
ordo = Archaeogastropoda
superfamilia = Trochacea
familia = Trochidae
genus = "Umbonium"
species = "U. sulcata"
binomial = "Umbonium zelandica"
binomial_authority = (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1855)

"Umbonium zelandica", common name wheel shell, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Trochidae, the top snails.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand. It is found all around New Zealand.

Habitat

This snail lives around the low water mark on sandy ocean beaches, and can be very abundant in some localities in Northland.

hell description

The shell is solid and depressed. The colour is creamy-white or pinkish, closely radially streaked in purplish or reddish, with a coppery iridescence. A whitish heavy callus forms a wide clear circle around the umbilicus, which may be partly open or completely closed. Bordering the callused area is a spiral band of purple. The interior of the aperture is greenish iridescent.

The shell height is up to 13 mm, and width up to 22 mm.

References

* Powell A W B, "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* Glen Pownall, "New Zealand Shells and Shellfish", Seven Seas Publishing Pty Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 85467 054 8