Zalipais benthicola

Taxobox
name = "Zalipais benthicola"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Vetigastropoda
superfamilia = Trochoidea
familia = Cyclostrematidae
genus = "Zalipais"
species = "Z. benthicola"
binomial = "Zalipais benthicola"
binomial_authority = Powell, 1927
synonyms =

"Zalipais benthicola" is a species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cyclostrematidae.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand, found off Otago in the South Island, and around The Snares.

Habitat

This snail is found at depths of between 90 and 310 m.

hell description

The shell is minute, thin, depressed, but with rounded whorls. It differs from "Zalipais lissa" in having dense but weak and uneven growth lines, instead of regular axials, a wider umbilicus, and the aperture not so recurrent to the suture.

Shell coloration is buff, fading to semi-transparent white over the last half whorl.

Shell height is up to 0.5 mm, and the width is up to 0.9 mm.

References

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