Scutus breviculus

Taxobox
name = "Scutus breviculus"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Archaeogastropoda
familia = Fissurellidae
genus = "Scutus"
species = "S. breviculus"
binomial = "Scutus breviculus"
binomial_authority = Blainville, 1817

"Scutus breviculus" is a species of large sea snail or limpet with the common name "shield shell" . It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Fissurellidae, the keyhole limpets and slit limpets.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.

Habitat

This species of shield snail is found under rocks in the intertidal zone, all around New Zealand's coast.

Description

The animal is a large black slug, many times larger than the shell, and with large blunt tentacles, the eyes at their outer bases. The shell is solid, white, or brownish on the dorsal surface, oblong with the posterior end rounded and the anterior end truncated and broadly sinuated. It is shaped like a Roman shield, from which it obtains its common name. The maximum shell length is 70 mm, and the maximum width is 38 mm.

References

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