Xymene plebius

Taxobox
name = "Xymene plebius"


image_caption =
status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Sorbeoconcha
familia = Muricidae
genus = "Xymene"
species = "X. plebius"
binomial = "Xymene plebius"
binomial_authority = (Hutton, 1873)
synonyms = "Fusus plebejus" Hutton, 1873
"Fusus inferus" Hutton, 1873
"Trophon plebejus" Suter, 1913

"Xymene plebius" is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Muricidae, the rock snails or murex snails.

Distribution

This murex species is endemic to New Zealand. It is found around all three main New Zealand islands, plus the Chatham Islands.

Habitat

This snail is found intertidally, and in shallow water.

hell description

The shell is , with a tall spire and shouldered whorls, and a short, flexed siphonal canal. Sculpture is of flat-topped spiral cords, bearing lozenge-shaped nodes, where they override the numerous axial folds.

Coloration is variable, mostly creamy-buff, with one or two of the spire-whorl cords and most of those on the body whorl picked out in purplish-brown. The interior of the aperture and inner lip callus is purplish-brown to dark chocolate.

Height is up to 22.5 mm, and width up to 11.5 mm.

References

* Powell A W B, "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1