Monodonta labio

Monodonta labio
Monodonta labio
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Vetigastropoda
Superfamily: Trochoidea (superfamily)
Family: Trochidae
Genus: Monodonta
Species: M. labio
Binomial name
Monodonta labio
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Trochus labio Linnaeus, 1758 (basionym)
  • Trochus novaezeelandica Röding, P.F., 1798
  • Monodonta immanis Fischer, 1880
  • Monodonta labio granulata Pilsbry, H.A., 1890
  • Monodonta melaurchelonis Philippi
  • Monodonta tuberculata A. Adams, 1853
Monodonta labio

Monodonta labio, common name the toothed top shell or the lipped periwinkle, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.[1]

Distribution

This species occurs in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar and the Mascarene basin and in the Western Pacific and off the Philippines.

Description

The length of the shell size varies between 15 mm and 45 mm. The shell is heavy and coarse with rough, grained surface with moderate sutures between rounded whorls. The body whorl is swollen and the penultimate whorl somewhat less. The shell shows a rounded keel (a spiral ridge marking a change of slope) and an umbilicus sealed with a callus. The apex is often worn away in adults. The columella has a prominent, blunt tooth. The inner edge of the outer lip shows a number of smaller knobs. The aperture has a nacreous interior.The color of the shell varies from a dark reddish brown to pale brown, with spiraled dashes of cream or pink.

Distribution

This marine species occurs over a wide range in Central and East Indian Ocean, Indo-China, Indo-Malaysian Oceania, the Philippines; the Persian Gulf, West Indian Ocean to Micronesia, Western Pacific, Micronesia and Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia)

Habitat

This snail lives on or under rocks and coral in the lower intertidal zone. But it tolerates a wide variety of substrata.

Feeding habits

This species is a herbivorous snail grazing on microalgae

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monodonta labio.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 24, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.