Engina mendicaria

Engina mendicaria
Shell of Engina mendicaria from Tanzania at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Buccinoidea
Family: Buccinidae
Subfamily: Pisaniinae
Genus: Engina
Species: E. mendicaria
Binomial name
Engina mendicaria
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms[1]
  • Columbella mendicaria (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Voluta mendicaria Linnaeus, 1758

Engina mendicaria, common name striped engina or bumble bee snail, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.[1]

Description

The shell size varies between 10 mm and 20 mm. This shell shows a white or yellowish background with a few transversal black bands and resembles the yellow and black pattern of wasps and bees (hence a common name).

Distribution

This species is distributed in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean along Aldabra, Chagos, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, in the tropical Indo-Pacific and Australia.

Habitat

These carnivore sea snails live on rocky shores and sand beds. They are mainly nocturnal.

References

External links


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