Thoristella crassicosta

Taxobox
name = "Thoristella crassicosta"
status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Prosobranchia
ordo = Archaeogastropoda
superfamilia = Trochacea
familia = Trochidae
genus = "Thoristella"
species = "T. crassicosta"
binomial = "Thoristella crassicosta"
binomial_authority = Powell, 1937

"Thoristella crassicosta" is a species of minute, deep-water sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc or micromollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails or top shells.

Distribution

This species of trochid is endemic to the deeper waters around New Zealand's Three Kings Islands.

Habitat

These sea snails are found at depths of about 475 m.

Description

The shell is small but very solid, depressed conical, and boldly sculptured with a few heavy spiral cords, three on the penultimate, with a weak thread in each interspace, and four stronger cords on the base. The umbilical area is very narrow and almost completely filled with callus.

The shell coloration is pale buff, light brown in the spiral interspaces, and the interior of the aperture is pale iridescent.

The shell height is up to 3.7 mm, and width up to 4.5 mm.

References

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