Trichosirius inornatus

Taxobox
name = "Trichosirius inornatus"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusc
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Heterobranchia
ordo = Littorinimorpha
superfamilia = Calyptraeoidea
familia = Capulidae
genus = "Trichosirius"
species = "T. inornatus"
binomial = "Trichosirius inornatus"
binomial_authority = (Hutton, 1873)
synonyms = "Trichosirius inornata" Hutton, 1873
"Trichosirius clathrata" Sower, 1874

"Trichosirius inornatus" is a species of medium-sized sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Capulidae.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand including the Chatham Islands.

Habitat

This snail lives intertidally and below, on rocks and mussels.

hell description

The shell is extremely variable in shape, ranging from tall-spired narrow forms from the littoral in muddy situations, to broad, low-spired forms from clean water locations.

Shell sculpture is , with three or four spiral threads on the shoulder slope, followed by three strong spiral cords on the spire-whorls, uppermost forming a sharp peripheral angle in the broad forms; similar cords continue over the base to a thick fold that borders a crescentic umbilicus; all cord interstices are crossed by thin axials that enclose rectangular spaces.

The shell coloration is buff to yellowish-brown, covered by a thin, bright yellow periostracum, with ragged fringes on the axials.

The shell height is up to 17 mm, and width up to 10 mm (narrow form), and height up to 14 mm, and width up to 11 mm (broad form).

References

* Powell A. W. B., William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1