Astralium rhodostomum

Astralium rhodostomum
View of a shell of Astralium rhodostomum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Clade:	Vetigastropoda
Superfamily:	Trochoidea (superfamily)
Family:	Turbinidae
Genus:	Astralium
Species:	A. rhodostomum
Binomial name
Astralium rhodostomum (Lamarck, 1822) [1]
Synonyms[2]
Astraea rhodostoma J. B. Lamarck, 1822 Astraea rhodostoma wallisii Kuroda, T. & T. Habe, 1952 Astraea tuberosum Astralium rhodostoma (Lamarck, 1822) Astralium tuberosum (Philippi) Distellifer queenslandicus Iredale, 1937 Distellifer wallisi Iredale, 1937 Trochus petrosus Martyn, T. in Kuroda, T., 1928 Trochus rhodostomus Lamarck, 1822 (basionym)

Astralium rhodostomum, common name the rosemouth star shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails.^[2]

Description

The length of the shell varies between 16 mm and 55 mm. This thick-shelled species stands near to Lithopoma caelatum (Gmelin, 1791), but is distinguished by the following characters: the whorls are flat, not arched, in the middle. The superior nodules are situated near to the suture. They are hemi-spherical and solid. The body whorl has but a single row of nodules. The carina is sharper, the base flatter, with only three concentric nodose lirae. The aperture is lower and more rhomboidal . The color pattern is reddish brown, more or less verging on violet. ^[3]

Distribution

This species occurs in the Indo-West Pacific and off East India, the Philippines and Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia)

References

1. Lamarck, J.B. 1822. Histoire naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres. Paris : J.B. Lamarck Vol. 7 711 pp.
2. Astralium rhodostomum (Lamarck, 1822).  Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 15 March 2012.
3. G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (described as Astralium tuberosum)

• Iredale,T. 1937. Middleton and Elizabeth Reef, South Pacific Ocean. The Australian Zoologist 8: 232-261
• Salvat, B. & Rives, C. 1975. Coquillages de Polynésie. Tahiti : Papeete les editions du pacifique, pp. 1-391.
• Wilson, B. 1993. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp.
• Williams, S.T. (2007). Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592
• Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2011) The family Turbinidae. Subfamilies Turbininae Rafinesque, 1815 and Prisogasterinae Hickman & McLean, 1990. In: G.T. Poppe & K. Groh (eds), A Conchological Iconography. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. pp. 1-82, pls 104-245.

External links

• Gastropods.com: Astralium rhodostomum; retrieved: 15 March 2012