Afrivoluta pringlei

Taxobox
name = "Afrivoluta pringlei"


image_caption = "Afrivoluta pringlei"
trawled off Cape Agulhas, South Africa
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Caenogastropoda
ordo = Sorbeoconcha
subordo = Hypsogastropoda
infraordo = Neogastropoda
familia = Marginellidae
subfamilia = Marginelloninae
genus = "Afrivoluta"
species = "A. pringlei"
binomial = "Afrivoluta pringlei"
binomial_authority = Tomlin, 1947

"Afrivoluta pringlei" is a large deepwater sea snail with a glossy shell, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Marginellidae, the marginellids.

This species is endemic to South Africa, and it is found south-east of Cape Recife in 220 m. Specimens have been found off Algoa Bay and Jeffreys Bay.

Trawling in deep water in the Algoa Bay area of South Africa has produced some interesting new species of mollusca. The splendid shell which Tomlin described as the most striking form discovered in South African waters since "Neptuniopsis", turned up off the Cape almost two centuries previously.

hell description

The columellar plaits, four in number, are extraordinarily prominent and massive; the whole shell is shiny and polished, with a large, very prominent reddish callus on the body whorl immediately below the suture and above the aperture, and extending for some distance down beside the aperture. The shell has a superficial spiral sculpture, the spirals being broad and further apart on the body whorl below the suture for about one-fifth of its length, but gradually becoming fine and almost microscopic.

Tomlin called the genus "Afrivoluta", and the genotype "pringlei", after the Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum and Snake Park.

The original description of the species, by Tomlin, 1947

Afrivoluta pringlei new genus and species

Shell large, elongate, with blunt rather swollen apex, whorls five; there are five close lines of growth, and very faint, irregular, superficial spirals on the body whorl which become almost microscopic on the lower three-quarters of the shell; colour chestnut-brown with two lighter brood bands of pale reddish brown in the middle of the body whorl and a narrow whitish sutural edging; collumellar plaits red; interior a rusty reddish brown. At the top of the body whorl immediately below the suture a large prominent rounded reddish callus, measuring about an inch in diameter, descends from the suture past the apex of the aperture. The columella projects somewhat below the base of the aperture; peristome thickened.

The shell length is up to 4½ inches, and the diameter is slightly over 1½ inches. The length of the aperture is up to 3 inches, with an aperture breadth of 9/16 inch.

References

* Lipe, R. 1991. Marginellas:37;pl.18, fig 1
* Lorenz 1993. World Shells 4:49
* Tomlin, John Reed le Brockton 1947. Journal of Conchology 22(10):244-246