Alcithoe chathamensis

Taxobox
name = "Alcithoe chathamensis"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Sorbeoconcha
familia = Volutidae
genus = "Alcithoe"
species = "A. chathamensis"
binomial = "Alcithoe chathamensis"
binomial_authority = (Dell, 1956)

"Alcithoe chathamensis" is a species of medium-sized deepwater sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

Range of distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand's Chatham Islands.

Habitat

This volute lives at depths of between 220 and 550 m.

hell description

The shell is small, narrowly fusiform, with lightly convex whorls, and a tall spire. The pillar has four evenly developed, rather weak oblique plaits.

The shell colour is light orange-brown, with distant short longitudinal streaks of dark reddish-brown, forming three spiral zones on the body whorl.

The shell height is up to 47 mm, and width up to 18 mm.

References

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