Turbo smaragdus

Taxobox
name = "Turbo smaragdus"


image_caption = A large old "Turbo smaragdus"
status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Prosobranchia
ordo = Archaeogastropoda
superfamilia = Trochacea
familia = Turbinidae
genus = "Turbo"
species = "T. smaragdus"
binomial = "Turbo smaragdus"
binomial_authority = Gmelin, 1791

"Turbo smaragdus", common name cat's eye, is a sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Turbinidae or "turban snails". The name "cat's eye" is a reference to the attractively colored operculum, which looks somewhat like an eye, and which is sometimes used for decorative purposes.

This species is endemic to New Zealand. It is found around the North, South, and Stewart islands, on rocks between low and mid tide.

The shell is large and solid, with evenly convex smooth whorls in the adult, but juveniles are often strongly tricarinate.

The shell colour is dull light green, under a thick greenish-black periostracum. The aperture and excavated parietal callus is silvery-white and iridescent. The edge of the peristome is narrowly margined with moss-green. The operculum is bluish-green, with a large heavily callused white area - the inner surface is thickly covered with a chocolate-brown periostracum.

The shell height is up to 70 mm, and the width is up to 73 mm.

Juvenile at 15 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

External links

* [http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/Shellfish/2/ENZ-Resources/Standard/1/en Fine image of aperture and operculum of a living specimen, plus more information]
* [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colScientificName%3a%22turbo+smaragdus%22+colCollectionGroup%3aNE Image from collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]